On Monday, November 10, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Special Assistant to the Borough President Yvonne Graham joined nearly 200 concerned residents, elected officials, members of the medical community and others who offered testimony at a public hearing on Long Island College Hospital (LICH) and Brooklyn’s ongoing health care crisis.

“We are open to plans from all quarters,” said BP Markowitz, “from the patients and doctors who attended the hearing, from medical groups and hospitals who have expressed an interest in maintaining these important services in Downtown Brooklyn, and from the current management of Continuum-LICH, if they can offer a plan that preserves these services.”

The public hearing was the latest effort by BP Markowitz to bring all sides together and resuscitate LICH. At a news conference outside the hospital last month, he called on Continuum Health Partners, the parent company of LICH, to go “back to the drawing board” and come up with a workable plan to save the hospital from closure. At the Borough President’s request, LICH is forming a community advisory board—on which the Borough President and elected officials from the hospital’s catchment area will have seats—and it’s expected the first meeting will be held later this month.

BP Markowitz and Special Assistant Graham also convened a stakeholders group that recently gathered for meetings at Borough Hall, and have arranged for elected officials to meet with Continuum President and Chief Executive Officer Stan Brezenoff. BP Markowitz has received assurances from State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Joe Baker, the Governor’s Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services, that the State will do all it can to monitor the situation at LICH and not rubberstamp any efforts to shutter the facility.

Adds BP Markowitz, “Closing LICH is not acceptable. Cutting back basic services is not acceptable. And we know that LICH is not alone, and that its difficulties are part of the larger health care crisis plaguing Brooklyn and the nation. That is why we’re seeking solutions not only for LICH, but for all health care providers.”

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• New York State Department of Health
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