Community Celebrates Long-awaited Opening of Medical Facility in Long Beach
Officials gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday to mark the opening of Mount Sinai South Nassau’s new multi-specialty care facility that replaced the former Long Beach Medical Care Center destroyed in Superstorm Sandy a decade ago.
Long Beach residents have felt cut off from medical assistance since the closest medical care units are located off the barrier island. The new hospital, located on 440 East Bay Dr., comes equipped with 15 fully furnished rooms, along with four minor procedure rooms and nine recovery spaces for post procedure and pre-procedure care.
“Today we’re witnessing a historic development: the opening of a major medical facility for the residents of Long Beach and the barrier island,” Dr. Adhi Sharma, president of Mount Sinai South Nassau said during the ceremony.
In 2015, two years after the destruction of the city’s medical center, Harvey Weisenberg, who represented the area in the Long Beach city council and the New York State Assembly, helped get a freestanding emergency room built for Long Beach citizens. Although the emergency room was open 24/7, Weisenberg said many Long Beach residents complained that it was not enough.
“Today we’re here to acknowledge the fact that we have a medical center that is trying to meet the needs [of Long Beach’s citizens],” said Weisenberg. “We’re not going to have to wait for a bridge to go up or down.”
Since the storm, Long Beach ambulances would have to travel off of Long Beach to Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside.
“This is the next major step in the rebuilding of our medical services here on Long Beach,” said Long Beach City Council President John Bendo. “And we’re fortunate that they made a flexible facility that can adjust as the needs of the community change.”
