Central Park Field Hospital To Close In May

CENTRAL PARK, NY — A field hospital established by an evangelical group in Central Park is expected to pack up in May and move its operations into Mount Sinai's Beth Israel hospital in the East Village.

The 68-bed tent hospital in Central Park's East Meadow is set to close by the second week of May, the New York Post first reported. The hospital, which was operated by North Carolina-based Samaritan's Purse, helped treat coronavirus patients from Mount Sinai Hospital after being set up in late March.

The Central Park hospital is running low on patients as coronavirus infections decrease in New York, the Post reported. There were just 18 patients at the facility on Thursday, according to the report. Other temporary facilities such as the USNS Comfort hospital ship and the federal hospital at the Javits Center are also leaving New York.

Many New York City officials welcomed the volunteer effort by Samaritan's Purse to increase the city's hospital capacity, but the evangelical group also drew the ire of the city's progressive leaders. The group's leader Franklin Graham — the son of late evangelist Billy Graham — has made past statements describing LGBTQ people as "immoral" and "detestable." The group also requires volunteers to sign an 11-point "Statement of Faith," which includes the points that "marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female" and that those who are "unrighteous" will face "everlasting punishment in hell."

New York State Senator Brad Hoylman said Friday that Mount Sinai officials told him the evangelical group would be invited to establish a new center at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in the East Village. Hoylman, the only openly-LGBTQ member of the senate, was one of the first New York officials to object to Graham's group operating in the city.

“I fully support the heroic efforts of the doctors, nurses and medical personnel on the front lines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s a real shame that Mount Sinai still clings to the argument that the only way to help our healthcare heroes is to allow bigots and homophobes to lend a hand," Hoylman said in a statement.

LGBTQ advocacy group Reclaim Pride Coalition held a rally in March to demand a city Commission on Human Rights investigation into Samaritan's Purse, prompting Graham to claim the evangelical group was being harassed.

Reclaim Pride is planning to hold another demonstration on Sunday near Beth Israel against what the group is calling an "expansion" of Mount Sinai's efforts with Samaritan's Purse.

"Though Mt. Sinai has assured the public of non discrimination in Samaritan’s Purse’s provisions of services, this is utterly inadequate, as it allows for discrimination towards employees and volunteers. Mt. Sinai, the Mayor, and the Governor must demand that Samaritan’s Purse drop this transphobic and homophobic Statement of Faith requirement for employees and volunteers. Healthcare must not come at the cost of basic human rights," Jay Walker, an organizer with the LGBTQ organization, said in a statement.