Hospital workers and community members rallied Sunday at the financially strapped Interfaith Medical Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant in an effort to halt the hospital’s impending closure.
The Brooklyn hospital nearly shuttered last month, but a last-minute financial reprieve in the form of emergency state funding meant to allow it to continue operations until March 2014, came through at the 11th hour. That timeline, however, is now uncertain, as some of the state funds are yet to be released.
Last week, the state’s Dormitory Authority sharply criticized a recent decision by the hospital’s board to continue to operate its own clinics rather than hand over control to the Kingsbrook Medical Center as planned, the New York Daily News reported.
“Interfaith has refused to transfer the clinics, which not only will cause Interfaith the immediate loss of $7.5 million in badly needed funding … but jeopardizes the ability of Interfaith to continue to operate,” a lawyer for the Dormitory Authority wrote in a letter Friday seen by the newspaper.
Interfaith board member Diane Porter told the newspaper that it was “inconceivable the state would allow [Interfaith] to close. This is the most underserved community in terms of health care.” [NYDN] – Hiten Samtani