Long Beach Residents Lose Suit To Have Hospital Reopened

A group of Long Beach residents had their suit to have the Long Bech Medical Center reopened dismissed from federal court late last week, meaning it is unlikely the Barrier Island will have a full-service hospital again.

The suit was filed by the Bay to Beach Civic Association against FEMA, Newsday reported. The civic association filed the suit after South Nassau Communities Hospital, which purchased the LBMC after Hurricane Sandy, announced that it would be spending the $154 million from FEMA to expand its Oceanside hospital and build an emergency center in Long Beach. The suit was seeking to make FEMA force South Nassau to use the money to repair and reopen the LBMC.

The Long Beach Medical Center was a full-service hospital serving the Barrier Island, but it was completely destroyed by flooding during Hurricane Sandy. The storm forced the hospital into bankruptcy, and South Nassau bought it out.

Instead of reopening the full hospital, which South Nassau has said is too expensive, it opened an emergency treatment center in Long Beach that sends more serious cases to the hospital's main campus in Oceanside. South Nassau has said that Long Beach doesn't have the population to support the cost of maintaining a full-service hospital, which is one of the reasons the LBMC went bankrupt in the first place.

South Nassau is using two thirds of the FEMA money to expand and upgrade its Oceanside campus to accommodate more patients. About $50 million is being spent to build and upgrade the emergency facility in Long Beach.

"We are pleased that the federal court has dismissed the Beach to Bay lawsuit on several grounds, including that they lacked standing to sue and that FEMA acted within its authority when it allocated disaster relief funds to South Nassau following Super Storm Sandy," the hospital said in a statement. "The court found that 'FEMA is certainly in no position to force New York to reopen the LBMC.'”

South Nassau opened the emergency center in Long Beach in 2015. According to officials, the center has seen more than 22,000 patients since it opened.

"The hospital is moving ahead with plans to further expand and restore medical services to residents of Long Beach as well as improving the capabilities of our main hospital in Oceanside, which serves the entire South Shore of Nassau County," the hospital said.

Photo: A concept of the to-be-built Long Beach Medical Arts Pavilion. Courtesy South Nassau Communities Hospital.