Talks of opening clinic in St. Vincent’s stall

Negotiations to open an urgent-care center at the shuttered St. Vincent’s
Hospital in Greenwich Village have been
stalled by a dispute over financial terms and by demands by former officials of
the institution — a Roman Catholic hospital — that birth control not be made
available there, officials told the New York Times yesterday. The officials said the
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, the Long Island-based hospital
organization that has a $9.4 million state grant to run the urgent-care center,
had hoped to open it by the end of this month. The plan was for North Shore
to temporarily put the clinic in the former emergency room of St.
Vincent’s, at 275 Eighth Avenue, until the building was sold or a
permanent site found. But officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity,
said the plan had been blocked by the demands of the restructuring officers who
took over St. Vincent’s as it declared bankruptcy before closing in April. Veronica
Sullivan, a hospital spokesperson, said that any lease agreement would need the
approval of the hospital’s Creditors And The Bankruptcy Court. She added that since
the property is linked to a Catholic organization, the clinic would have to
“adhere to Catholic directives.” [NYT]