After this year's bankruptcy of two Queens Private Hospitals, the former structures were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Sadly, it is clear that neither site will become a hospital again...
Joshua Guttman is heading an investment group that successfully bid for St. John's Hospital in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica. The properties, owned by bankrupt Caritas Health Care, went on auction Friday.
They are eying Mary Immaculate for use as either an educational or religious facility, according to a statement by CB Richard Ellis, the firm that handled the auction. Other options include using the site as offices for a nonprofit or government organization.
The 2-acre St. John's site on Queens Blvd. could be turned into offices, the statement said.Community leaders and elected officials had lobbied to keep the sites open as hospitals.
...and the elected officials of Queens are eerily silent. Queens BP, Helen Marshall, arguably the City's most ineffective elected official, failed to find a buyer that would invest to bring back healthcare services to residents of Queens who are faced with a massive shortage of medical treatment facilities...
"I am going to try to convince them," she said. "Queens has a population of 2.3 million and 1.6 beds per 1,000 people, while Manhattan has population of 1.5 million and 6.8 beds per 1,000."
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who is slated to meet with the developers, said Queens is in desperate need of health care facilities.
"I am going to try to convince them," she said. "Queens has a population of 2.3 million and 1.6 beds per 1,000 people, while Manhattan has population of 1.5 million and 6.8 beds per 1,000."
...considering that the City's hospital system is subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of more than $1 billion annually, it is a true failure of the political process and our elected officials to have allowed a shortage of about $50 million to cause the closure of these two very important medical facilities....
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written by Jay Golub , May 01, 2010
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l...XTAKGrPErI
Again, the axe falls on another medical institution, this time one that has served the people of NYC for 160 years.
When will New York's crew of federal elected officials step into this discussion and help New Yorkers maintain their healthcare infrastructure?
Are Schumer and Gillibrand and our long line of healthcare "reformists" in the Congress just going to stand by and watch while NYC eliminates thousands of hospital bed space?
My understanding is that the Health and Hospital Corporation of NYC bails out the public hospitals to the tune of about $1 billion annually. Why can't the city give money to private hospitals, like the two that were forced to close in Queens, when they only needed $50 million to survive?
And, on top of that, 3500 people just lost their jobs...
written by Quickjustice , May 03, 2010
The reality is that there's a statewide glut of hospital beds that costs the state of New York billions in subsidies.
Now that the state is broke, the money is no longer there to continue these subsidies. And ObamaCare, which also isn't adequately funded, will make the situation much, much worse.
written by Jay Golub , May 03, 2010
That's an interesting point, QJ. Where did you get that tid-bit of information?
And as far as the hospitals I was talking about, most, if not all, of their funding came from private sources or collections from patient treatment. "The state" being broke has less to do with this situation, even noting that the HHC of NYC spend more than a $1 billion a year to subsidize the city hospitals...
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