Cobble Hill’s debt-laden Long Island College Hospital is merging with SUNY Downstate Medical Center of Crown Heights, pending approval by the state. The hospital’s current operator, Continuum Health Partners, has already approved the plan, which will fend off the facility’s closure after a year of uncertainty. LICH is $170 million in debt and in 2008, it sold several buildings, laid off hundreds of employees and had proposed shuttering its maternity, pediatrics and dentistry departments. There is no timeline for the merger as of yet, hospital officials said. Continuum, which also operates St. Luke’s and Roosevelt hospitals in Manhattan, recently submitted a proposal to take over St. Vincent’s Hospital in the West Village. Continuum’s plan would convert St. Vincent’s it into a community health center and significantly scaling back emergency services. [Brooklyn Paper]