NEW YORK CITY-Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes ruled on Thursday that state regulations governing hospital closures in New York State are “unconstitutionally vague.”
The judge in his ruling said that state regulations do not afford the State Department of Health clear criteria to evaluate hospital closure plans and ruled that therefore SUNY's plan to shut down Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn is invalid. A SUNY spokesman declined comment on the judge's ruling.
"Such vagueness assures that the (health) Commissioner has unfettered discretion under its terms to approve the closure of LICH for any reason, or no reason at all," he wrote. The judge's ruling won't be effective until an order is filed, likely later this month, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Labor unions hailed ruling. "The process they've used in every one of these closures has left community after community with nothing, no health-care," says Jill Furillo, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association. See story in the Wall Street Journal.
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