At 10am on Friday, April 9, the emergency room at St. Vincent’s Hospital stopped taking patients as the institution prepared to shut its doors and file bankruptcy. The battle to save St. Vincent’s has been one of the highest profile issues in Congressman Nadler’s district.
“After a tremendous effort by all stakeholders to save the hospital as an acute care facility, it has become clear that this option is not viable due to the economic realities facing the hospital,” Nadler said in a press release after hospital officials announced their decision.
St. Vincent’s closing leaves the west side of lower Manhattan empty of emergency room and inpatient care. The closest comparable care facility–Bellevue Hospital–is two miles away. Local activists, elected officials and the hospital itself have kept the financially troubled, privately-run hospital on life support for months, hoping to find a permanent solution to keep the 50,000-ER-patients-a-year facility from closing.
The blow to Nadler’s district–however anticipated–comes just weeks after the triumphant passage of health care reform in Washington. Nadler has been in-district defending the bill, according to the West Side Spirit. Unlike much of what cable news reports, Nadler’s constituents were putting the congressman on the defensive for not going far enough with the legislation.
Still, the fact now remains, despite the congressman’s support, his district is now down a major medical facility. He has promised to work to have an adequate medical facility in the West Village. St. Vincent’s is one of a number of hospitals in the city that have shut their doors over the past decade. Even if health care reform delivers for New Yorkers, residents of the West Side will now have a harder time finding it.