Lights out for ailing Cobble Hill hospital on May 23

The State University of New York, current owner of beleaguered Long Island College Hospital, is expected to shut off the lights at the facility for good on May 23.

The closure would come before Brooklyn Health Partners, winner of a recent bid to take over the facility, snags an operating certificate from the Department of Health for a temporary medical facility, according to a letter obtained by the Brooklyn paper from university lawyers and attorneys representing groups opposed to the closure . The specific date is cited because a previous court settlement permits the state to let go of the facility after May 22, but officials are pushing SUNY to keep it open a bit longer now that someone is poised to soon take over.

“We expect SUNY and the Department of Health to do everything within their power to ensure that the community served by LICH is not left without a hospital for any period of time,” Eliza Bates, spokesperson for the New York State Nurses Association, told the paper.

Brooklyn Health Partners plans to set up a temporary 150-bed hospital while building a new facility that will hold up to 400 beds and 1,000 apartments, and asked the state to bring in a temporary operator while it gathers the necessary paperwork. But the university said no, citing the settlement that ended the long court battle over the facility and absolved SUNY of any obligation beyond May 22. [Brooklyn Paper] — Julie Strickland