100 Filipino nurses lose job as NY hospital shuts door

QUEENS, New York—Some 100 Filipino nurses, technicians, and other hospital staff were among the 800 workers out of a job now in New York when the hospital they were working for officially shut its doors.

Racked with too much debt and little income, the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens, a 104-year-old staple in the area for residents, closed down on April 16 after a yearlong battle to keep it afloat.

According to reports, leading up to the hospital’s closure New York elected officials, nurses and other staff staged several protests to try to keep its doors open. They were hopeful that a developer or someone would come to the hospital’s rescue in bankruptcy court so it could avoid closure. The white knight never came.

The final straw came when the hospital failed a lab inspection by the Department of Health in February. The New York Daily News reports a court-appointed trustee was put in charge of Peninsula after the lab debacle.

Court papers obtained by the Associated Press reports, says Chapter 11 trustee Lori Lapin Jones will “turn to determining the most efficient and responsible manner in which to wind down the affairs of the hospital,” including exploring the use of the closed hospital for other health care purposes. That could include transforming Peninsula into a primary care facility or an urgent care or emergency care center.

The Peninsula Hospital Center, which some estimate serves about 35,000 patients a year, is the only hospital in the Rockaways and South Queens with the New York State Department of Health Stroke Center designation.

According to the census, there are more than 40,000 Filipinos that live in the Queens region in New York.

Jamaica Hospital, about 10 miles away from Far Rockaway, Queens, will now be the nearest hospital for patients seeking care. Joseph Pimentel/AJPress