Few citizens attended the session (photo: Orysia Dmytrenko)
GOSHEN – Members of the Orange County Legislature supported a resolution on Thursday to call “upon the Board of Trustees for St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital to reconsider its decision to close its emergency department at the Cornwall Campus on October 1, 2016.”
Legislator Kevin Hines, who represents Cornwall, called “terrible” the process of disclosing this important public safety decision.
“I found out from the husband of a nurse at the hospital, who contacted me,” Hines said. “I started making phone calls to elected officials including to the town supervisor, and nobody knew about it except state officials. They knew about it. The county was never consulted.”
Hospital officials said the Cornwall ER is bleeding the hospital’s finances and has low patient attendance. The Newburgh campus ER can handle its entire service region, they maintain.
Hines, who serves as the chairman of the Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee, asked the county’s new Commissioner of Emergency Services Brendan Casey (whose appointment was formally confirmed at Thursday’s legislative session) to begin working on amending the county’s emergency plans with respect to Indian Point, Stewart Airport, the air show scheduled there this fall, the Thruway and any other areas that could experience mass casualties.
“They admit to having hallway beds,” said Hines, referring to St. Luke’s Hospital in Newburgh, which would be the most likely place to reroute victims should an emergency occur. “They can’t handle it. It’s going to be dangerous.”
