Rally Planned To Save Emergency Department Closure

LONG BEACH, NY — Residents of Long Beach getting emergency medical care now have to travel to the Oceanside campus of Mount Sinai South Nassau.

The Long Beach Emergency Department closed temporarily starting on Monday due to the state's vaccine mandate suspension causing a lack of nurses.

"I'm appalled, frankly," Assemblywoman Melissa Miller (R-Atlantic Beach) told Patch.

The hospital anticipated the looming difficulties by requesting a mandate extension with the state Department of Health. It would have given Mount Sinai more flexibility to find additional workers. Miller said it was denied.

"Either approve the extension and give them a few more weeks to get supplemental staff in or do what you said you were going to, deploy the National Guard, provide them with staff," she said.

The hospital said the closure will last four weeks, and possibly longer.

Patients in vital need of medical attention will need to drive an extra 20 minutes to get from Long Beach to the Oceanside hospital on Merrick Road. An ambulance will be stationed at the Long Beach Emergency Department around the clock during the closure to, in effect, shuttle patients to Mount Sinai South Nassau.

"It's putting patients at risk," Miller said.

An additional concern is the strain this will cause at the Oceanside facilities, potentially slowing treatment from a backlog of patients.

"There will be a much longer wait at that emergency room for care," she said.

Various community organizations were planning a rally on Tuesday in protest of the facility's closure and demanding they reopen it immediately.

Miller had reached out to the state's health commissioner several times about how critical it is to keep the Emergency Department operational on the barrier island.