Lower Manhattan’s Last Community Hospital Is Gone: We Can’t Let This Happen Again

Generations of New Yorkers relied on Mount Sinai Beth Israel. As of April 9, that era is over. Hospital executives, eager to cut costs and emboldened by weak politicians without the guts to intervene, sealed the fate of our community hospital, which served us for 135 years.

I was proud to fight alongside the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel. But now, the fight must shift toward bold investment in public hospitals—so no neighborhood ever faces this kind of loss again. Mount Sinai’s closure is part of a pattern New Yorkers see too often.

In 2008, Cabrini Medical Center in Gramercy Park closed due to financial difficulties. In 2010, St. Vincent’s in Greenwich Village followed. And now, after Mount Sinai’s closure, only one full-service hospital—a branch of NewYork-Presbyterian—remains in Lower Manhattan.

Beth Israel was a pillar of our community from the Great Depression right through the COVID-19 pandemic. It was founded in 1890 to serve the Jewish residents on the Lower East Side, who were denied admittance in many other city hospitals. Over the years, its mission expanded. The hospital moved into the recently shuttered complex at First Avenue and East 16th Street nearly 100 years ago, in 1929, and at its peak it was a 799-bed teaching hospital. But its time has officially come to a tragic close.

While high-paid hospital executives walk away with bonuses, the reality is that everyday New Yorkers are left scrambling for new doctors, critical mental-health services, and life-saving emergency treatment.

As the daughter of two physicians, this makes me sick. My parents taught me that medicine isn’t just a science—it’s a sacred responsibility to care for others. Doctors swear an oath to serve those in need. It’s unconscionable that those sworn to serve are now abandoning an entire neighborhood. But we can’t give up.

While Medicaid and Medicare are under attack, our neighborhood just lost one of our best lines of defense. This didn’t happen overnight. Beth Israel was starved for resources for years—because our healthcare system puts profits before people, even after the devastation of the pandemic.

That’s why we need a New Deal for New York City’s public hospitals: major investment in NYC Health + Hospitals to expand staffing, upgrade facilities, and broaden services. Our public system showed during the pandemic that it can respond quickly and effectively. With real investment, it could become a world-class network. Partnering with CUNY and scaling up virtual care would strengthen the workforce, improve access, and ensure long-term stability—without sacrificing care. We owe it to our communities to keep fighting.

Sarah Batchu is a member of the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel and is a past vice chair of Community Board 3. She is running for City Council in District 2, which includes the East Village, Gramercy Park, Greenwich Village, Kips Bay, Murray Hill, and the Lower East Side.