Showing posts with label Nirav Shah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nirav Shah. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

With licensing technicality, is New York State dooming LICH bidding process ?

If the winning bidder for Long Island College Hospital (LICH) does not have a license to operate a hospital in New York state, then Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Health Commissioner Nirav Shah could jeopardise the future of LICH.

Had the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) submitted a bid, LICH would have had a greater chance of maintaining full-service hospital care for the community. It's not known if HHC could still partner with one of the bidders for licensing purposes. Since most healthcare activists, led principally by healthcare unions, are held captive in veal pens by the new de Blasio administration, there's no real advocacy to press Mayor Bill de Blasio to use HHC resources, such as its licensing permits, to help save LICH.

Optimism and confusion over LICH proposals

By Dan Goldberg
Mar. 26, 2014 | 5:00 a.m.

In the end, it might be a technicality that undoes a number of long-sought bids to maintain Long Island College Hospital as a full-service medical facility.

The issue, mentioned during Tuesday night's community forum at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, regards the licensing of the buyer, after the hospital is sold by SUNY and the interpretation of Article 28 of New York's public health law, a technical but crucial point that could determine the fate of the hospital.

Community members, who were briefed last night on proposals from nine separate bidders to purchase and redevelop LICH, favor the ones who plan for a full-service health care facility. (Some of the bids propose to develop some residential units on the site.)

The potential problem is that none of the bidders proposing a full-service facility currently run a hospital in New York. That means they'd need a certificate from the state's Department of Health before they can begin operations.

There has been some concern that it would take months, or even years, to obtain such permission, which would jeopardize even the limited services currently in place at LICH.

Jim Walden, an attorney who represented community groups in the suit against SUNY and the state, said an out-of-state bidder wouldn't have trouble obtaining temporary permission to run LICH provided SUNY and the state's Department of Health are willing to cooperate.

But whether that cooperation would be forthcoming remains a question, given health commissioner Nirav Shah's and Governor Andrew Cuomo's repeated statements that there are already too many in-patient beds in Brooklyn.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Hospital Crisis Grows

From True News From Change NYC :

Closing of NYU and Bellevue Hospitals Because of Sandy Should Have Been A Wakeup Call That NYC Has A Hospital Crisis.

New Yorkers are Getting Sicker and Even Dying (esp. the poor) Because of A Hospital Crisis Made Worse by the Floods . . . Where is the Pols, Media and Activist Outrage?

Nobody Notices Hospital Crisis Or Sandy's Wake Up Call

With Some Hospitals Closed After Hurricane, E.R.’s at Others Overflow (NYT) Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn had 1,100 more emergency patients last month than in November 2011; the increase was mostly attributed to a hospital shut by the storm. * Hospital in Brooklyn Files for Bankruptcy Protection (NYT) Some New York medical centers are adding extra shifts and converting offices and lobbies into space for patients as emergency room visits surge. * Half of Brooklyn hospitals on life support | Crain's New York Business

The Angry New Yorker's Who Demanded Their Rights is Gone

Where are the Mayoral Candidates on the Hospital Crisis?

Why Is There No Movement To Save These Hospitals Like There Was in 1980 Against the Closing of Sydenham Hospital? 3 hospitals closed in Queens, St Vincent's murdered for a Co-op in Manhattan, 5 hospitals in trouble in Brooklyn. The activist and progressives are all over Facebook and twitter demanding pay for fasttfood workers because it is being pushed by unions looking for membership. It is very stranged that these same activists are silent on the health care needs of many of these workers who depend on the hospital system for all their health care needs. Could it be that the help unions provide the reason the activist are supporting their issues?

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Bellevue Morgue Under Water

In a post about the final two patients still remaining at Bellevue Hospital, The New York Times obtained details about some of the severe conditions inside the hospital's morgue :

The sources also said that after Hurricane Sandy hit, the Bellevue morgue was under water, so the bodies of patients who died of their illnesses after the storm had to be kept elsewhere. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, confirmed that the Bellevue morgue had been flooded, but that with the assistance of the medical examiner, the bodies had been put on higher racks to keep them out of the water.

She did not know how many bodies there were. Ms. Borakove said the medical examiner’s morgue, which is separate, remained dry.

What is missing from these incremental reports about the deteriorating conditions at many hospitals in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is the failure of the mayor's emergency management plan that did not anticipate for infrastructure failures.

Not only that, but the New York State Department of Health has responsibility, for the irresponsible distribution of hospital beds in Manhattan. After nine New York City hospitals have closed, how do Gov. Andrew Cuomo ; Dr. Nirav Shah, the Secretary of the State Department of Health ; Stephen Berger, who continues to advocate for still yet more hospital closings ; and other statue health officials now view the issue of reducing the number of hospitals, when a mass civilian trauma event or natural disaster can destroy the infrastructure of the fewer remaining hospitals we have now ?

Here's an Associated Press video of the beginning of the evacuation of Bellevue Hospital :

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

May Day Die-In St. Vincent's Hospital

#MayDay: Parts 1 and 2 : Die-In @ St. Vincent's Hospital

On May Day Healthcare for the 99% and members of the community participated in a March, Speak-Out, and Die-In protesting St. Vincent's Hospital being closed and replaced by condos.

Die-In : Part 1

Die-In : Part 2