In the latest chapter of the Long Island College Hospital saga, SUNY Downstate Medical Center is mulling reopening bidding among developers to encourage more hospital operators to take over the struggling medical facility.
Should such an agreement be reached, however, it would likely come with the caveat that SUNY could slash a big chunk of the 1,400 medical workers currently employed by the medical complex. The workers have been mostly idle in recent months as the hospital’s fate hangs in the balance. Their salaries make up a large portion of the $13 million SUNY is losing per month at LICH.
SUNY is in the final stages of a sales process that turned out bidders including Don Peebles, Brooklyn Hospital and NYU. But community opposition to the bidders’ plans to scale down the hospital’s medical space in favor of converting it into residential buildings has roiled community groups, local politicians and the unions representing LICH staff. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland