WNYC Is Looking For Help To Crack a Case of Albany Corruption

The $3 Million Mystery Medical Care Center

Are you http://t.co/zTynyQx7MW looking for this ? http://t.co/t03yRz2HJj @WNYC @NorthShoreLIJ @lenoxhill @AndreaWNYC @jkeefe

— StopNYMRT (@StopNYMRT) December 4, 2013

The WNYC reporters John Keefe and Andrea Bernstein are asking for the public's help to identify a medical care center in New York City, which has received $3 million in taxpayer money, but, which, according to the Moreland Commission's report on corruption, has few, if any, patients.

One may recall that the urgent care center operated by North Shore-LIJ/Lenox Hill Hospital in Chelsea was supposed to have received taxpayer money. But according to YELP, that urgent care center appears to now be closed.

Could this be the mysterious facility that has received millions in taxpayer money in exchange for providing nonexistent medical care services to the community ?

Stay tuned.

North Shore LIJ Medical Group - CLOSED - Chelsea - Manhattan, NY

Intentionally Deceptive Advertising ?

North Shore LIJ/Lenox Hill fraudulently labeling urgent care center as a "hospital." Do you agree ? @nycHealthy pic.twitter.com/FRyvAMvh9D

— StopNYMRT (@StopNYMRT) December 4, 2013

Another urgent care center, which North Shore-LIJ/Lenox Hill Hospital plan to operate near the $1 billion Rudin luxury condominium complex, is now being labeled as a "hospital," even though it does not have the facilities, medical specializations, or certifications to treat heart attack patients, according to New York City EMS Chief Abdo Nahmod.

Does anybody have an update to the Lenox Hill Hospital EMS Paramedic Layoffs ?

Lenox Hill Hospital ended its paramedic service to the #UES and turned in its licenses. @micahkellner @billdeblasio

— Sarah Steiner (@Sarahgoat) January 14, 2013

St. John's Episcopal Hospital At Capacity, Upper East Side Residents Complain About Hospital Crisis

After Peninsula Hospital closed, St. John's became the only full-service hospital in Far Rockaway. It is now operating at 100% capacity, meaning, it has no more room to take in patients. This condition is compounded by the fact that patients have nowhere to be discharged to, and by the fact that many of the employees have become homeless as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

Nearby nursing homes and adult homes have been evacuated and are not yet re-opened. Electricity continues to be a problem throughout the area and patients with special needs may have lost homes or cannot go back to homes without electricity or heat. Staff, many of them without homes or who have been evacuated, also need places to stay so they can continue to work. Homeless staff are given vouchers for hot meals.

St. John's has set up two funds for donations. To donate to St. John's Episcopal Hospital to continue its efforts to serve the community, please make a check out to St. John's Episcopal Hospital and mail it to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, 327 Beach 19th Street, Far Rockaway, NY 11691. To donate to the Hurricane Sandy Staff Relief Fund, please make the check out to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, and write in the memo "Hurricane Sandy Staff Relief Fund" and mail to the above-mentioned address. To pay by Paypal or Credit Card go to www.ehs.org.

Separately, WCBS 2 News did a piece about how the people in the Upper East Side are now beginning to complain about all the people from Lower Manhattan swarming their hospitals.

Maybe it is going to take complaints by UES residents to ring alarm bells about the uneven distribution of hospital beds in Lower Manhattan ?

NYC Hurricane Sandy - Hospital Evacuations and Berger Commission - FAIL

Why is it acceptable for us to allow hospitals go through such desperate attempts to equally and adequately fund the healthcare needs of patients ? Look at the consequences of the blackouts of New York City hospitals in Lower Manhattan.

The issue before us is whether the rebuilding of our hospitals will continue to favour wealthy institutions, which primarily serve the well-insured, or will we use this opportunity to examine and fix the unequal distribution of healthcare in New York created by the Berger Commission ?

As it is, we are on a path that will continue to force us to accept less and less. Look at how nursing homes were instructed by health officials not to evacuate, and then they are criticised by the Department of Health for unacceptable conditions compounded precisely because they were instructed not to evacuate. Is this acceptable ?

If we believe in the dignity and equality of all people, then our healthcare system must be reformed to provide patient care-centered healthcare, to equally meet the needs of all patients. Please support a truly universal, single-payer healthcare system.

Amanda Burden Approves Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan For St. Vincent's Hospital

The controversial and scandalous Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan for St. Vincent's Hospital was unanimously approved the New York City Planning Commission. The Planning Commission Director Amanda Burden said that she was pleased to see more and more luxury condominiums replacing social safety net underpinnings, such as community hospitals. Word on the street is that, after the luxury condo conversion hearing, Bill Rudin asked if Ms. Burden would like any campaign contributions the way that the Rudin family have made campaign donations to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Rudin Family Economic Injustice

Under the Rudin Family's logic, the have will have more, and the have nots will have even less. The Top 1% can close hospitals in order to convert them into luxury condos, or they can clear out maternity wards, so that they can give celebrity births. Either way, healthcare in the United States is becoming less and less equal.

Lenox Hill Hospital - Closing Its Maternity Wing for Beyoncé's Celebrity Birth

Updated with photo of Blue Ivy Carter : Beyoncé's Celebrity Birth : Lenox Hill will evict the 99% out of hospital beds, so that it can cater to the 1%.

With more and more hospitals closing in the New York City area, Manhattan's luxury Lenox Hill Hospital closed one of its wings to accommodate Beyoncé Knowles' celebrity birth.

According to The New York Daily News and TMZ.com, Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid $1.3 million to "seal off a private wing of the hospital" so that Beyonce could give birth to Blue Ivy Carter.

Critics of Lenox Hill Hospital claim that the hospital dually limited patients' access to healthcare and limited visitors' access to patients during the security "lockdown."

According to The New York Times, compliance staff from the New York State Department of Health were in contact with Lenox Hill Hospital, to determine whether Lenox Hill Hospital was in violation of regulations by the extreme "lockdown" conditions in its celebrity maternity ward.

According to TMZ.com, a breastfeeding mother support group is threatening to sue Lenox Hill Hospital as a result of the hospital giving priority healthcare to celebrities (the 1%) -- at the cost of throwing out average patients (the 99%).

No comment yet from North Shore-LIJ, the parent holding company for Lenox Hill Hospital, whether this is how they will treat average health care patients at the new Lenox Hill urgent care clinic at the O'Toole building.

With St. Vincent's closed, the West Side still has no hospital beds below 57th Street. How can we bring a hospital back to our community ?

How can we get true universal healthcare ? Come Join the Discussion ! RSVP at the Facebook page for the Luxury Condos Can't Do CPR ! St. Vincent's Community Assembly.