By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — St. Vincent's Hospital may have left Greenwich Village, but the health needs of the community that surrounded it haven't gone anywhere.
Now residents hope that a community health assessment conducted by North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System and the Hunter College School of Public Health will provide the hard data needed to entice another full-service hospital to take over the St.Vincent's site.
"We know how our neighbors feel about St.Vincent's and how our families depended on it," said Brad Hoylman, chair of the Community Board 2 St.Vincent's task force, at a meeting Tuesday. "We think this document will help us make a case for a hospital and emergency room."
The assesment, which began the data gathering phase in October, will finish with a community survey by March, said Neal Cohen, a professor of public health at Hunter College.
Some residents say March is too far away, and that the neighborhood needs another hospital immediately.
"I'm a man living with Chron's Disease and at Beth Israel I can't get an appointment for two months," said Timothy Lunceford, 54, who lives four blocks away from the St.Vincent's site and said he went to the former hospital for emergencies.
"We don't need to waste time," Lunceford added.
Recent real estate interests in the hospital's campus in the Village also have community advocates worried that the site will be repurposed for other uses.
"Our fear is that this is for some mega real estate deal," said Yetta Kurland, an attorney and advocate for the return of St. Vincent's Hospital.
But the goal of the assessment is to give elected officials and community members a better idea of the kind of hospital they'll need, said Jesse Campoamor, a member of the overseeing committee and Community Board 4.
"This is an opportunity for us to look at where the holes are now and figure out a solution for the future," Campoamor said.
