The NY State Commission on Healthcare facilities recommended closing nine hospitals in the state in order to save $1.5 billion. Five are in New York City: St. Vincent's Midtown and Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan; Victory Memorial in Brooklyn; New York Westchester Square Medical in the Bronx; and Pakway Hospital in Queens.
In addition to the recommended closures, the panel recommended that some facilities (ten of which are in the city) be merged with other hospitals in order to make cuts. For instance, Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat would join Lenox HIll Hospital.
NY1 had reaction from some hospital employees:
There'll only be two emergency departments to cover from the Upper West Side all the way down to Battery Park City and yet we see one million workers a day come into this area and we see 25 million tourists annually in this area and I think two emergency departments are not going to be able to handle the emergency needs of the West Side,” said Michael Fagan of St. Vincent’s Midtown.
"It just hit me today that I'm going to have to find another job and that's not what I'm thinking about,” said Cabrini Chief of Geriatrics Nadia Marsh. “I'm thinking about our hundreds and thousands of patients who aren't going to have their doctors that they've had for 10 and 20 and sometimes even 30 years. These are old people; for them to make a transition to another hospital and another doctor at the age of 85 is very, very difficult."
While hospital staff, politicians and community members are upset with the cuts and plan to fight them, some watchdogs don't think the cuts were deep enough; Mayor Bloomberg even said he thought the cuts were going to be larger. The Post points out that two hospitals "long considered to be on life support," Harlem's North General and Downtown Hospital, were not cut. Though North General is in Congressman Rangel's district and Downtown Hospital is in Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's domain, the commission said no hospitals were spared.
Naturally, developers are salivating over the real estate these hospitals occupy. The NY Sun highlighted this finding: "Midtown Manhattan real estate values remain high, particularly in the up-and-coming Clinton neighborhoods where the hospital is located, and a sale of the building would cover a complete repayment of its debt." St. Vincent's Midtown could be sold for $90 million, while Cabrini in Gramercy could be sold for $130 million.
The Commission's findings will take effect if Governor Pataki and the Legislature do not overturn them. The NY Times' analysis of the recommended closures notes that $1.5 billion in federal money to help the state close hospitals is "a carrot" and with the report issued before Eliot Spitzer becomes governor, Spitzer gets "the opportunity to close hospitals, and save the state money, without having to go through the politically difficult step of choosing which ones to shutter."
Here is the whole report (PDF) from the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century.
