LTE: Where is Fossella in our hospital crisis?

via SI Advance;

Closing another hospital on Staten Island, reported by Tevah Platt (March 15), is becoming a serious habit at the expense of the safety, health and welfare of Staten Islanders. City Councilman Mike McMahon is right: It is a "ridiculous" notion and, "Those who stand to lose most are the people who live in those sections of Staten Island that have the worst medical profile, the biggest need, and the largest inability to get access because of economic challenges and lack of health insurance."

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Recently he opposed closing a Brooklyn hospital (Victory Memorial) but hypocritically he assisted in closing a Staten Island hospital (Bayley Seton) by approving a breach of covenant with the federal government to pave the way.

Once a VA hospital, sold for $1, provided it could not be sold within 30 years, Bayley Seton Hospital was not only sold for a windfall but Fossella paid them an additional $150,000 of taxpayers' money to do it. The land and buildings alone are worth several millions of dollars. He required them to replace a general hospital with emergency room, operating rooms and wards with hundreds of beds, etc., for a small clinic that is not open 24/7 (or on weekends) for a meager $700,000, less the additional $150,000 milked from the taxpayers.