Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli officially approved the sale of Long Island College Hospital to Fortis Property Group on Oct. 28.

Brooklyn residents have fought the transaction between SUNY and Fortis for nearly two years.  Brooklyn resident Jon Berall submitted the Order to Show Cause to the court, asking to halt the transfer until the Appellate Court reviewed the final legal issues. Justice Johnny Lee Baynes rejected the appeal to delay the sale of Long Island College Hospital to Fortis Property Group on Oct. 21. Berall has previously filed motions to block the transfer.

Community members and patients hope officials will call an investigation into the validity of the deal. Barbara Gartner, Brooklyn Heights resident and member of Patients for LICH, said various members of the community have joined together to gain the attention of Schneiderman and DiNapoli.

“The role of the attorney general is to protect the public interest and maintain LICH’s charitable mission,” Gartner said. “The only outcome that does that is for SUNY to transfer LICH to a full-service hospital operator and restore LICH’s endowment.”

The New York State Nurses Association took legal action against the NYU Langone Medical Center in September to stop the hospital from taking control of the  freestanding emergency room at the LICH. The lawsuit was dismissed.

Robert Femia, vice chair of Clinical Operations Department of Emergency Medicine at Langone said the Emergency Department would offer timely emergency care to the community.

“Similar to an ED located within a hospital, it will have the capability to treat patients with life threatening, time critical medical emergencies, including stroke, severe infections and heart attacks,” Femia said.

Langone also plans to provide additional ambulatory health services on the LICH site. Femia said Langone will be able to provide the community with access to both emergency care and preventive health services at physician practices.

“The freestanding ED will be part of a future medical facility to be built by NYU Langone that will include primary care and specialty office practices, a cancer center, lab and radiology services, and an ambulatory surgery center,” Femia said.

Community groups, health care providers and local officials have expressed concern over the downsizing of the hospital despite the growing population of Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Heights resident Ellen Grove questioned the ethics behind the transaction.

“There is a nexus of politics and money interests that is so powerful in the state of New York that even enormous community opposition — 50,000 signatures to keep the hospital open on the Governor’s desk — and taking the matter into court made no difference in the outcome,” Grove said.

Robert Pepper, long-time resident of Brooklyn Heights and former LICH patient, said closing the hospital meant losing the only full-service hospital serving Brooklyn.

“When SUNY closed the hospital and let the doctors and nurses go against Court orders several times, the other full-service hospitals had an overwhelming overcrowding of their emergency wards causing long waits in outside ambulances and hospital hallways,” Pepper said.

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday Oct. 30 print edition. Email Suebin Kim at [email protected].