LICH Settlement!

Apparently a deal was reached today, to be presented to the judge tomorrow:

Officials and community members fighting over the future of Long Island College Hospital have reached a deal, though its details are being kept under wraps for now.

The settlement was reached Thursday between SUNY Downstate, which runs the Cobble Hill hospital, and community groups that sued to keep the facility operational.

Sources say that according to the settlement, the bidding process will start fresh, and only proposals with "a major health care component" will be considered.

Sources also say that representatives from the community will play an active role in the selection process.

Even though both sides still have to sign off on the deal, the plaintiffs are claiming a victory, adding that the real winners are the people of Brooklyn.

"I think that you'll see at the end of the day we had certain core principals that were critical to us. And SUNY was generous enough to accommodate those core principals," said Plaintiffs Attorney Jim Walden.

"The main thing from the very beginning that the community has wanted, the unions have wanted, the physicians have wanted - is a full service hospital," said Susan Shanahan, a LICH registered nurse.

What we as community groups want, of course, is a hospital to support our neighborhoods.  I'm proud that CGNA joined up with our neighbors in the Cobble Hill Association and other civics and then-Public Advocate deBlasio, among others, to help see this through.