Letters to the Editor

Residents sound off on hospital

Beach to Bay calls for a full-service hospital; encourages residents to attend Health Department forum on April 13

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Make your voices heard on April 13

To the Editor:

On Monday April 13, at 7 p.m., representatives of the state Department of Health will speak at a mandatory forum at City Hall thanks to our assemblyman, Todd Kaminsky.

Unlike the Information Day that South Nassau Communities Hospital held last month, we will be able to voice our concerns — and needs — to determine the future of a hospital on the barrier island.

This forum is the only time that the Health Department will be listening to the community. It is important that not only residents attend this meeting but also medical professionals, police officials, firefighters, rescue workers, our elected officials and all those who have any professional opinions.

We all must come armed with our knowledge, experience and any information to make a clear statement as to why a hospital is a need and not a luxury.

As it stands, South Nassau owns the former Long Beach Medical Center campus. Additionally, SNCH has received in excess of $150 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At the Information Day, South Nassau unveiled a 30,000-square-foot Medical Arts Pavilion that it said would cost between $20 million and $40 million to build.

This building is a glorified “hospital-based” emergency room that does not have any hospital rooms or the medical facilities that are customary to a hospital. To put it simply, they are building an emergency room and nothing more.

This plan is certainly not in the best interests of the community.

It is interesting that our Nassau County Executive, Ed Mangano, is pushing to expand the health and medical practices industry in Nassau while SNCH is shrinking those services for the barrier island and the Island Park/Oceanside communities.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center will spend $140 million to build a cancer treatment center in a two-story, 105,000-square-foot facility in Garden City.
SNCH is the recipient of more than $170 million because of the loss of LBMC, and intends to spend approximately $40 million on a glorified emergency room, leaving the community without a hospital and creating high medical, health and safety risks.

The funds that SNCH received should be allocated for a local hospital campus and nothing less — not for SNCH’s Oceanside campus.

SNCH certainly has the funds from FEMA to build and operate a new hospital at its Long Beach campus. Further, SNCH has been spreading propaganda through conversation and meetings with the Oceanside and Rockville Centre communities that they are overtaxed and need to expand in Oceanside. A big reason that they are so overtaxed is because there is no hospital or emergency room on the barrier island.

Finally, SNCH is floating the idea of building an assisted-living facility on the LBMC campus.

This is a good idea to help service our aging senior population, but such a facility creates an even more important need to have a hospital here in order to service those seniors.

Please make it a priority to attend the forum on Monday at Long Beach City Hall. It is important for the future of our community.

Mark Tannenbaum
President, Long Beach Chamber of Commerce

Long Beach needs a full-service hospital

To the Editor:

The recent Herald article “South Nassau unveils hospital plans” (March 19-25) was troubling, since it confirmed that South Nassau Communities Hospital’s plans are unresponsive to the medical needs of the barrier island’s 40,000 residents.

South Nassau Chief Executive Officer and President Richard Murphy was quoted as saying that the proposed Medical Arts Pavilion was “essentially a hospital without beds.” A hospital without beds is not a hospital.

The residents and visitors to our barrier island and nearby communities require more than meaningless phrases — we require a full-service hospital.

On Monday, April 13, at 7 p.m., representatives from the state Department of Health will speak at City Hall and hear from residents concerning our medical and emergency needs. We should voice our concerns.

The Beach-to-Bay Civic Association is a rallying center for various civic groups, community organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and others who are demanding appropriate medical services.

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