New Timeline For Brooklyn Hospital Closure Spurs Rally: Activists

BROOKLYN, NY — A new timeline has emerged in the contentious plan to close most of Brooklyn's Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, according to activists.

Save Kingsbrook — the coalition fighting the shut down of medical beds at the Brooklyn facility — will rally in Crown Heights on Saturday as part of their latest effort to stop Kingsbrook's closure, which they said this week might start as soon as next month.

The activist group, which includes staff from the hospital, say employees are being told that admissions to the hospital may be halted as early as June 9 with a plan to fully close by the start of July.

The new timeline comes after multiple delays to the closure plan, which is part of a $700-million state plan to consolidate three hospitals in Brooklyn. One Brooklyn Health confirmed the July 1 closure date with Patch.

The plan to eliminate all medical beds at Kingsbrook was first postponed at the height of the coronavirus last year. It was eventually revamped in the fall, but a new January closure date was soon delayed again, according to reports at the time.

It includes transforming Kingsbrook into a "Medical Village" with outpatient services and a long term care center, according to One Brooklyn.

"One Brooklyn Health will be activating the plan to close the Medical Surgical Services beds at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center (Kingsbrook) by July 1st," CEO LaRay Brown said. "One Brooklyn Health was established to strengthen access to health care in Central Brooklyn and to foster a regional delivery care model including restructuring inpatient services."

The state also plans to use the transformation of Kingsbrook's medical campus to build affordable housing in place of several of its facilities slated for demolition.

But activists, including hospital staff and patients, have pushed back against the merger, saying it would eliminate services in a neighborhood already seen as a healthcare desert.

"To protect Brooklyn, Kingsbrook’s closing must be stopped," organizers of the rally said this week. "Cuomo and NY legislators need to protect safety-net hospitals. We urge a moratorium on NY hospital closings and capacity cuts till NY’s post-pandemic needs can be re-evaluated."

Plans for the merger show it will mean a net loss of more than 200 beds between all three hospitals, most of which will be eliminated from Kingsbrook.

Here are the details about the rally:

WHAT: “Beds Not Body Bags” Vigil and Speak-Out for Survival
WHEN: Saturday, May 22, 12-1 p.m.
WHERE: Eastern Parkway & Utica Ave, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
WHO: Kingsbrook Community Action Committee; Rise and Resist; New York Doctors Coalition; City Councilor Carlina Rivera, Chair, Committee on Hospitals; Additional groups and speakers to be announced

This story has been updated with a comment from One Brookyn Health.