City Manager Jack Schnirman said that the city’s federally staffed temporary hospital — DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) — that was set up at the Rec Center’s baseball field in the days after the storm — was phased out after the hospital’s emergency unit was established.

“We believe that it is imperative that there is a local facility that will accept our ambulances,” Schnirman said. “[The state health commissioner] feels that there is not enough traffic there to justify keeping the facility [there] and that our needs are best served by running the ambulances out of the city to South Nassau Communities Hospital. We still believe that we need an emergency facility in the city.”

Schnirman said that the city has secured additional ambulances to “expedite turnaround time and response time.”

The State Health Commissioner, Player said, has arranged for a mobile primary care facility at the hospital site that will offer general medical services equal to the care one would receive at their physician’s office. 

The facility will fulfill the primary care needs of the community, she said, and will be staffed by the hospital’s physicians and nurses. While Long Beach Medical Center completes restoration of its facility, residents requiring emergency care should call 911 and will be transported by ambulance to other hospitals.

Additionally, arrangements have been made to have ambulance services on stand-by at the facility should the need for acute-care services arise.

“So we have the mobile buses that are going to be stationed where the emergency department is now,” Player said. “It will be similar to services that you would find in a physician’s office. We want to make sure the community is aware in the change in the level of services so no one is at risk.”

 The facility will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be reached at (516) 567-0558. 

 Player said that the hospital is sending out automated calls to inform residents about the change, and said that the hospital’s Family Care Center should be opening in two weeks at 761 Franklin Blvd. The primary care facility will eventually be transferred to that location.