Vol. 75/No. 30      August 22, 2011

Hospital administrators submitted plans in late July to shut down the center. The move would leave only one hospital, St. John’s Episcopal, on the Rockaway Peninsula.

“It’s all about money,” said retired hospital worker Doris Hayes. “We need this hospital open for the community.”

“This hospital saved my life,” said Craig Young, who spent three months in a diabetic coma.

Hospital closings have become frequent throughout the city and across the country. Since 2008 three hospitals have closed in Queens alone—Parkway, St. John’s Queens, and Mary Immaculate.

A warning letter was sent to all employees by CEO Robert Levine saying “unexpected inability to address adequately its financial problems” is one of the reasons for closure. The hospital will close October 25 unless “circumstances require an earlier shutdown.”

“I don’t know about the future,” said Minnie Scott, an assistant nurse with 15 years at Peninsula.

“Now where do we go?” asked Khadijah Rasheed, who depends on the hospital to provide medical care to her and her four children.
 
 
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