In the wake of the closings of St. John’s Queens and Mary Immaculate hospitals, I will convene my Hospitals Task Force later this month to ensure a viable plan for the future of health care in Queens.



While I and other elected officials, the Queens County Medical Society, the State Health Department and others worked diligently, often on a daily basis, to find a winning prescription to cure the financial ills of the Caritas system, both St. John’s Queens and Mary Immaculate hospitals are now effectively closed.



From the beginning, the problem was a lack of money and resources to provide adequately for the medical needs of two communities.



While acknowledging with regret the closing of these two hospitals, leaving us with 10 hospitals to now serve more than 2.2 million residents, our concern must now focus on the future of health care for patients brought to emergency rooms at already overburdened hospitals.



This and other issues related to the loss of more than 2,500 jobs and the current Bankruptcy Court proceedings related to the future of these hospital sites and the more than 150 vendors who did business with them will be on the agenda of the task force.



We will capitalize on the findings and recommendations of my 2006 Vision for a Comprehensive and Sustainable Healthcare Delivery System in Queens and, in the meantime, continue our discussions with hospital leaders, the Governor’s Office and the State Department of Health about programs, services and plans for the future.