Bankrupt Brooklyn Hospital Seeks Closure

The Bedford-Stuyvesant hospital Interfaith Medical Center has given up trying to remain open. Now that its last ditch effort to stay operational through a merger with neighboring medical facilities has failed, Interfaith filed a legal motion last Tuesday for permission to begin closure procedures on August 15.

The filing in federal bankruptcy court comes less than two weeks after the state Department of Health said no to the hospital’s desperate restructuring plan proposed by the troubled hospital.

The closure plan submitted by the hospital must be approved by the Department of Health so that Interfaith can begin transferring their out-patients to other facilities and begin to close down their operations. The process is expected to take several months, winding down around November 14.

Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, an activist who has been outspoken in his advocacy of keeping such facilities open, says he has not yet given up the fight to keep Interfaith alive and well.