Doctors and Nurses Protest, but St. Vincent's Submits Formal Closure Plan

New York, NY —

St. Vincent's Medical Center today submitted its formal closure plan to state health authorities. Outside the Greenwich Village hospital, about 200 nurses and doctors, and a few community members, protested, but it's not clear what recourse they have.

Dr. William Mandel was one of several employees who wished more locals had shown up.

"People are healthy, and they don’t think about what could potentially happen to them," Madel says. "They don’t understand what it’s like to lose a major medical facility in their neighborhood."

Dr. Frederick Siegal, the former head of the hospital's HIV-AIDS program, says it's not clear which institutions will pick up the programs that only St. Vincent's has offered.

"These are irreplaceable, and they've been let to go, and it's a disaster for the city of New York," he says.

The State Health Department says it is working with St. Vincent's to make sure its patients are taken care of. The hospital is expected to file for bankruptcy as soon as this week.

All 3,500 employees of the nearly bankrupt hospital got termination notices yesterday, and St Vincent's will close most of its inpatient facilities at the end of the month.

St Vincent's is more than $700 million in debt.