COBBLE HILL —While a Brooklyn judge ruled this week that plans to shutter LICH were off-the-table till next month, supporters are not backing down in their vocal fight to save the hospital.
As the saga continues, supporters are rallying together and organizing community events in Red Hook and Cobble Hill.
On April 5, a community health fair and speak-out is being held from 6 p.m., to 8 p.m., at the Pal Miccio Center (595 Clinton St.) in Red Hook.
Advocates will meet again on April 7 at 1 p.m., to march from Red Hook’s Coffey Park to Long Island College Hospital on Hicks Street. A number of organizations including the New York State Nurses Association, 1199 SEIU, the Red Hook Initiative and others will be rally together, according to a spokesman for the nurses association.
The public battle between the State University of New York, who voted to close the hospital last month, and LICH employees, patients and community members has been drawn out through restraining orders and court-ordered public hearings.
Dr. John Williams, president of SUNY Downstate (which includes LICH) recommended in February that the hospital be closed because it was draining money from the downstate system.
But community members have been pushing back against the decision. This week, a commercial funded by the Cobble Hill Association ran on NY1, showing desperate paramedics rushing a patient to a hospital that's too far away because the closer LICH option had been closed.
