Report Says SUNY Downstate Medical Center In Financial Trouble
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
A new report by the State Comptroller's office says Brooklyn's SUNY Downstate Medical Center is losing $1 million per week, but a new idea to get out of financial trouble has some residents and employees upset.
The report says that if action isn't taken, the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, which encompasses three Brooklyn hospitals, won't be able to pay its bills come May.
Sources say hospital and local government officials held a meeting this week to discuss the problem and that a proposal was made to close Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn Heights.
The LICH property is valued at $500 million.
The idea has some residents of the area upset.
"It would affect me big because my daughter's actually in here right now," said one resident. "She's about to have surgery for something minor. But it would affect me because the neighborhood and the area, we have a lot of family members and other people that surround here."
57,000 people use the emergency room at the hospital every year.
In response to the suggestion, other local lawmakers in the area released a joint statement saying the facility's closure is "unwarranted, premature and unacceptable."
Dr. John F. Williams, the president of SUNY Downstate Medical Center, said in a statement that the organization is addressing key issues raised in the comptroller's report.