Interfaith Hospital Plans to Close in November

Bed-Stuy's Interfaith Hospital will likely close its doors in November, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

The hospital's operator filed court papers this week to shut down the struggling medical center, according to the Daily News, and plans to stop accepting patients and diverting ambulances by Aug. 15.

The hospital's closure would have to be approved by a bankruptcy court, according to the paper, as well as the Department of Health. 

"The closure of Interfaith will be a blow to the people and neighborhoods of central Brooklyn who need health care services and that is unacceptable," said Kirsten John Foy, of the Brooklyn Conference of Chapters of the National Action Network. 

"Corporate interests and mismanagement have hemorrhaged cash out of the hospital and left it in financial straits, which is deeply troubling and calls for a serious investigation rather than a shuttering of the hospital."

Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio tweeted the map attached above, and said closing the hospital would be a disaster.

"Closing hospitals is not a health policy. It’s an admission of failure and a dereliction of duty,” said de Blasio. “Losing Interfaith will devastate these communities. There is no slack in Brooklyn’s health care network to replace the vital mental health and HIV-AIDS services here, to say nothing of the Emergency Room and community clinics. We’ll fight this closure with every tool we have."

Community leaders have been fighting the feared closure of the hospital for months.