By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — St. Vincent’s Hospital will end ambulance service beginning Friday, a move that was announced late Thursday just hours before it was scheduled to take effect.
The Fire Department will stop routing ambulances to the Greenwich Village hospital starting at 10 a.m. Friday, except for emergencies related to behavioral health, a hospital spokesperson said.
St. Vincent’s emergency rooms will still admit walk-in patients for treatment, the spokesperson added.
Beth Israel Medical Center, New York Downtown Hospital, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and Bellevue Hospital Center have been told to stand by for ambulances diverted from St. Vincent’s on Friday, the New York Times reported.
St. Vincent’s nurses protested the closure outside the ailing hospital on Thursday after hearing the news.
“Opportunities for maintaining acute care here have been wasted because of politics and whatever transpired in closed-door meetings,” said Lorraine Seidel, director of the New York State Nurses Association, at the protest. “Now how many people in this community will suffer because care will no longer be available?”
St. Vincent’s board voted on Tuesday to shutter all inpatient services.
City Counicl Speaker Christine Quinn and Borough President Scott Stringer said at a rally Wednesday that the facility must remain an urgent-care facility to prevent the loss of emergency care below 59th Street on the West Side.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio also turned out to a community board meeting on Wednesday night to slam the state for not saving the hospital.
