By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Producer/Reporter
Hundreds of nurses, doctors and hospital workers joined Christine Quinn and Scott Stringer in a protest Thursday against the closing of St. Vincent’s hospital.
“At the beginning of the recession, some said AIG was too big to fail,” Quinn, a fervent supporter of the hospital said. “I say St. Vincent’s is too important to fail.”
On Tuesday, Continuum Health Partners — which operates Beth Israel, St. Luke's and Roosevelt hospitals in Manhattan — submitted a plan to take control of the financially struggling, 727-bed Greenwich Village hospital which would cut most of its services.
Quinn said her office was looking into the possibilites of mergers with NYU and other friendly hospitals who would keep St. Vincent's open and operating.
Nurses and union representatives gathered with petitions for supporters to sign beginning before 11 a.m.. Once announcements began over the hospital P.A. system, available nurses and doctors like Dr. William Mandell (of no relation to this reporter), the chief of infectious diseases, at St. Vincent’s came to join the protest.
“I can always go to another hospital, but it’s really sad for the community because there’s people who won’t be getting care,” Mandell said.
“St. Luke’s, Beth Israel, Bellevue all say they can take on the patients, but go to their emergency rooms and see how busy they already are.”
Nurses like Eileen McMonagle said she was not only protesting on her lunch break, but also writing to all of the elected officials she could, as suggested by the nurses’ union.
“I’ve been here for 28 years, I went to school here, it is a part of my life,” McMonagle said.
The loss of hundreds of jobs was also on many protestors’ minds, as they considered the prospect of unemployment in an already bleak economy. Cries of "Save our jobs" broke out around the rally as Quinn spoke, sparking a grim nod from the Speaker.
“There’s panic around the place, there’s a little insecurity,” said Rory Lynch, a paramedic. “There’s lots of people who are afraid for their future, their families, their kids, their mortgage.”
Fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and private cars driving by honked their support throughout the rally, drawing cheers from the freezing protestors.
But Mandell said he wasn't sure even the strongest shows of support will be enough to keep the hospital open, especially without support from the mayor, the governor and New York's senators.
“Paterson doesn’t care, Bloomberg doesn’t care, Schumer doesn’t care, Gillibrand doesn’t care," he said. "they’ve sunk money into other hospitals in New York to keep them alive and they haven’t given St. Vincent’s a dime.”
