Public Meeting with NYU Langone

This Wednesday, representatives from NYU Langone will present updates on their Cobble Hill healthcare operations to the Community Board Six Human Services Committee. The committee will discuss the current, and future, healthcare offerings in the neighborhood. Community Board committee meetings are open to the public. The meeting details are below, and available on the Community Board Six website.

6:30 pm Wednesday, January 27th 

Cobble Hill Health Center 

380 Henry Street 

(Congress & Warren Streets) 

LICH is open for care!

Earlier this week, Judge Baynes issued his decision nullifying the SUNY/Downstate Closure Plan for Long Island College Hospital. Ambulance service has been resumed, the ER is open, and LICH is open for care! This is an important victory that will provide much needed time for find a new operator and re-structuring the hospital.

Much thanks to Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio and all our elected officials for their support over the past seven months. And a special thanks is due to Jim Walden and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP for their vigorous pro bono representation of our community. Much hard work remains to be done, but today we can celebrate a hard won victory.

For more on this milestone, check out some of the local press coverage at the NY Daily News, the

Brooklyn Eagle, and NY1.

Thurs 2/14 @ 6pm Community Forum about LICH

text is copied from Councilman Brad Lander's newsletter... 
As you’ve probably heard, last Friday the SUNY Board of Trustees voted to close Long Island College Hospital, a community health care institution that has served Brooklyn for more than 150 years. LICH was acquired by SUNY Downstate in 2011.

The SUNY Board of Trustees vote authorizes SUNY Downstate to present a plan for closing LICH to the New York State Department of Health, which will make the final decision. I strongly oppose the proposal to close LICH, as I stated a hearing of the SUNY Board of Trustees last Thursday. It is the wrong plan, and will do real harm to families and to our community. This long-term abandonment of essential health care infrastructure would be an irreplaceable loss for downtown and brownstone Brooklyn. It will take tough decisions and strong leadership for SUNY Downstate to become a financially solvent institution, but the complete closure of LICH is simply unacceptable.

The New York State Nurses Association and 1199SEIU, who represent LICH workers, along with the Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Boerum Hill Neighborhood Associations and the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance, are holding a community forum about LICH this Thursday, February 14th, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Kane Street Synagogue. Please come to this important community meeting to learn more about how we can work together to save LICH.

Community Forum about LICH
Thursday, February 14, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Kane Street Synagogue, 236 Kane Street (between Court and Clinton)

For more information about the forum, contact Mickey Green from the New York State Nurses Association at 718-714-8863 or michelle.green@nysna.org.

Keep LICH Alive

Contact New York State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah at nrs02@health.state.ny.us or (518) 474-2011 and demand that Long Island College Hospital remains OPEN.

LICH updates

The Long Island College Hospital (LICH) is a vital community institution. It has been in our area for 150 years, employs 1900 people, and most importantly provides life-saving services to people in our area from DUMBO to Red Hook. There were 122,300 patient visits to LICH in 2012; 25,900 of those were visits to the ER.
      The Board of Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY), which owns LICH is expected to propose at its meeting this Friday that the hospital be closed. By law, there has to be a "Public Meeting/ Hearing" to get this process started. The hearing will take place TODAY, Thursday, February 7, from 3:00-5:00 P.M. at the Auditorium of the College of Optometry, 33 West 42nd Street in Manhattan.
    Please join me and other religious, political, and health care leaders in opposing the closing of LICH. You can take these steps:

• Call Governor Cuomo at 518 474 8390 and tell him that our community needs this hospital.

• Attend a Rally for LICH on Friday, February 8 at LICH, at 8:30 A.M. followed by aHall  march to Borough Hall where there will be a press conference at 9:30 A.M and a public hearing at 10:30 A.M.

 • You can also show your concern by attending a community forum about LICH next Thursday, February 14, from 6-8 P.M. at the synagogue (236 Kane St). The forum is sponsored by the Cobble Hill Association, Brooklyn Heights Association, Carroll Garden Association, Kane Street Synagogue, New York State Nurses Association, and 1199 SEIU.

Sincerely,
The Cobble Hill Association

Community Health Fair, Saturday 7-21

This just in from our neighbors at Suny Downstate Long Island College Hospital -

Would your kids enjoy touring tour an ambulance or having their faces painted?  How about you - would you like to watch a demonstration of CPR and have a free asthma screening?

Come to  

Downstate LICH's annual Community Health Fair!  

Date: Saturday, July 21

Time: 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Place: Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6
(entrance on Atlantic Ave. & Furman St.)

Clowns * Body Mass Index (BMI) screening * Face painting * Asthma screening * Meet the docs * Ambulance tours * Diabetes screening... and much more!

LICH head and neck cancer screening

LICH is offering free head and neck cancer screening. Here are the details from LICH:

While lung cancer cases are down, cancers in the head and neck appear to be increasing. Fortunately, most head and neck cancers produce early symptoms and are curable if caught early. You should know the possible warning signs so you can alert your doctor to your symptoms as soon as possible.

"Remember—successful treatment of head and neck cancer can depend on early detection. Knowing and recognizing the signs of head and neck cancer can save your life," says Dr. Krish Sundaram, Vice Chairman of Otolaryngology at Long Island College Hospital (LICH) of Brooklyn.

If you are experiencing any of the following problems which won’t go away, please call the number below to schedule an appointment for Long Island College Hospital’s FREE screening:

A growth or sore in the mouth which does not improve,
Throat pain,
Difficulty or pain while swallowing,
Hoarseness,
Bloody cough, or
Lump in the neck.

Please call Elaine or Abby at 718-780-1498, ext. 0, to schedule an appointment.

For more information about head and neck cancers, visit the comprehensive website of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, at http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation.

WHAT: Free head and neck cancer screenings at LICH
WHEN: Thursday, April 30, 2009, 1.00 to 3.00 p.m.
WHERE: Department of Otolaryngology (ENT) at LICH, 134 Atlantic Avenue, between Clinton and Henry Streets

join the LICH mailing list

To stay in touch with events at LICH, join their mailing list. Zippi Dvash, LICH's Assistant Vice-President of Public Affairs and Development, writes in to say:

If you are interested in receiving advance notice of health talks, screenings, lectures and events at LICH, please email Zipporah Dvash in the Department of Public Affairs & Development at zdvash@chpnet.org, and ask to be added to their electronic news bulletin community. The list is private and will never be shared with a third party.

take advantage of LICH

One of our complaints about the management of LICH has been that they don't get the word out about either the services they offer or the high quality of those services. With all the news reports about financial uncertainty, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that LICH is still an excellent hospital with the same range of services that it offered a year ago.

With that in mind, we have offered to help LICH get the word out about their positive news as well. Here is a notice from LICH about a free community education workshop series about diabetes:

Diabetes is on the rise in the US, largely due to lifestyle choices. Long Island College Hospital (LICH) of Brooklyn, in conjunction with the Dodge YMCA at Atlantic Avenue, is hosting a community education workshop series about diabetes. The sessions include use of medication, foot care, new technology, counting carbs, glucose monitoring, type I diabetes vs. type II and more. Registration is required, but the sessions are free to the community.

WHAT: Community education workshop series about diabetes.
WHEN: 1.00 to 2.30 p.m. on
Tuesday, February 10,
Tuesday, February 17,
Tuesday, February 24.
WHERE: Dodge YMCA, 225 Atlantic Avenue, Classroom B (second level).

Info/Registration: Sara Reyes, Dodge YMCA, 212-912-2421, sreyes [at] ymcanyc.org.

Diabetes Self-Management Education: Brooklyn has some of the highest rates of diabetes in the state. If untreated or poorly controlled, diabetes can have devastating health consequences. Research has shown that controlling the blood glucose levels help neutralize the risk of health complications from diabetes. There have been many recent advances in diabetes management from better understanding the role of diet to development of new medications/insulins and high-tech devices. Come learn about diabetes management and self-management. This weekly three session work shop will provide a comprehensive overview of the diabetes and instruction in the self-management tasks that will allow people with diabetes to be in the best position to work with their HealthCare provider to help assure optimum diabetes management.