Letter: Consolidating hospital wards
Plainview Hospital, part of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. (Aug. 13, 2013) Credit: Danielle Finkelstein
The maternity ward at Plainview Hospital closed last weekend ["Docs: Closing maternity ward risky," News, Aug. 15]. Some 60 dedicated nurses and staff are being reassigned to other positions within the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, some in distant locations requiring retraining.
My wife is one of the nurses. She spent most of her 40-year nursing career in Plainview, delivering thousands of babies. Some say the nurses are fortunate to having another position.
Plainview and nearby communities will be without a valuable resource. North Shore-LIJ has deemed this service expendable. Why? The system's competing Katz Women's Hospitals in Manhasset and New Hyde Park are underused. The big machine wins again.
Joseph Altmann, Hicksville
