Cobble Hill Blog

Denis Hamill, writing in today’s Daily News, detects something rotten about the proposed takeover of LICH by SUNY Downstate Medical Center:

NY Daily News: A smelly political back room merger of LICH with SUNY Downstate Medical Center is imminent, unless state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo steps in…”In September, the LICH medical staff submitted an alternative restructuring plan to the state Department of Health that we believe would make this private hospital profitable again,” says Dr. John Romanelli, head of the LICH medical staff. “We’ve received no response. Nothing. Instead they seem ready to approve the Downstate takeover, making it a public hospital, without even consulting the medical staff.”

In his column, Hamill alleges that Continuum Health Partners, LICH’s present manager, has “cannibalized LICH for the benefit of the network’s Manhattan mother ship, Beth Israel” and, according to Dr. Romanelli, “they are trying to bury the body with this deal with Downstate.”