On Tuesday, October 14, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined elected officials, members of the medical community and others to call on Continuum Health Partners, the parent company of Long Island College Hospital (LICH), to go “back to the drawing board” and come up with a workable plan to save the hospital from closure. BP Markowitz also praised a group of LICH doctors for their own proposal to save the facility.

Supporters standing with the Borough President outside LICH included Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez; Special Assistant to the Borough President Yvonne Graham; Assembly Members Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries; City Council Member Bill de Blasio; Dr. Tom Sorra of LICH; Brooklyn Downtown Partnership President Joe Chan; Alyce Barr, Principal, Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies; Rabbi Serge Lippe of the Brooklyn Heights Clergy Association; Rev. Dr. Elgin Watkins; representatives from Community Boards 2 and 6; and members of the medical community and the public.

BP Markowitz has spoken to State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and has been assured there will be a complete and timely investigation into LICH. BP Markowitz also called on Governor Paterson to look into any assistance the State can give in saving the hospital, and announced that a town hall meeting will be held at Borough Hall to gather more public input and ideas on how to resuscitate LICH.

Previously, BP Markowitz called on LICH to form a community advisory board—on which the Borough President would have a seat—by the end of the year, and to draft a comprehensive financial plan and risk management plan that will protect the hospital’s remaining services.

BP Markowitz and those attending the press conference and rally again criticized Continuum for proposing the first round of cuts as a “done deal” without consulting with public officials or groups who could have prevented the cutbacks, and for “crying poor” while stonewalling requests for audits and financial information that could prove its economic position.

“Closing LICH is not an option,” said BP Markowitz. “Let’s face it—the neighborhoods served by LICH will only see their populations increase, along with their need for obstetrics, pediatrics, school clinics and senior services. Instead of making LICH the ‘gold standard’ in these services areas, Continuum is turning its back on Central, Downtown and Brownstone Brooklyn.”

“In 1998, the LICH board elected to affiliate with Continuum Health Partners to save money through group purchasing and to get $15 million Continuum promised for primary care development; LICH never got that money,” said Dr. Tom Sorra, immediate past president of the medical staff at LICH. “A few years later, Continuum took most of the $140 million donated to LICH and wasted it away. Our board of directors has been replaced with the Manhattan-based Continuum board. A moratorium on closure plans and real estate sales at LICH until the New York State Department of Health can make a determination has been shot down. It’s up to all of us to stop these doors from closing. Without LICH here, it will be a bad day in Black Rock, and Spencer Tracy won’t be here to save us.”