A Brooklyn Health Partners proposal to save a beleaguered Long Island College Hospital looks increasingly like a “fantasyland,” a state source told the New York Daily News Tuesday.
The remark came as Mayor Bill de Blasio, state officials and two healthcare unions all but said the winning bidder doesn’t have the ability to actually deliver on a promise to maintain a hospital on the troubled site.
“As we learn more, there are some real concerns being raised about the bid,” Phil Walzak, de Blasio’s spokesperson, told the Daily News.
An unnamed state source told the paper that “it would be almost irresponsible to move forward with this company.”
Whether the project will be yanked from BHP was not immediately clear, but hospital owner the State University of New York is expected to disqualify the company and restart talks with developer Don Peebles, the second-ranked bidder. And “the click is ticking,” the source told the Daily News, as SUNY is legally able to wash its hands of LICH on May 23.
Brooklyn Health Partners, the highest-scoring bidder on the beleaguered LICH site, pledged to surrounding communities to preserve a full-service hospital just days after the State University of New York announced plans to shutter facility on May 23. [NYDN] — Julie Strickland