On Tuesday morning, over 100 hospital employees, community members and emergency medical services personnel gathered together at a press conference to voice their concern over the announced closure of TLC Lakeshore Hospital on Jan. 1, 2020. OBSERVER Photo by Mary Heyl.

IRVING — State Sen. George Borrello and Assemblyman Andrew Goodell will be on hand this afternoon for a press conference that calls on the Brooks-TLC Hospital System board of directors to put a halt to closure plans at the Irving facility.

Their call, however, may be coming too late.

As of Thursday afternoon, all patients in the behavioral health unit had been relocated to other facilities from the Lakeshore Hospital. In addition, supplies and equipment at the location were still being moved out of the building. Some of those items also were being thrown into a trash bin.

Also on Thursday, union officials said a local Emergency Medical Service provider was being contracted to stay at the emergency room entrance and take possible patients to other health-care providers.

These practices defy a recommendation made last week by a New York state panel.

On Jan. 24, the New York state Office of Mental Health Behavioral Health Services Advisory Council met to evaluate TLC-Lakeshore hospital’s request to promptly close the facility. The committee decided that given the region’s need for mental health services and the hospital’s lack of a transition plan, the facility should remain open until further notice.

Despite the state’s disapproval of TLC-Lakeshore’s request to close, hospital administration has continued pushing ahead with closure plans by manufacturing staffing shortages and deliberately misleading the remaining employees, union officials said.

“It’s very hard to tell a patient who presents in a mental health crisis, that we can’t admit them even though there are beds available,” said Steven Spears, a mental health counselor on the behavioral health unit. “As a health-care worker, I am here to advocate for my patients who are in need of immediate care. This is devastating to our community.”

State Office of Mental Health officials also noted the facility is to remain open for the time being.

“Commissioner (Ann Marie) Sullivan has not yet issued a decision regarding the application from Brooks-TLC to close their inpatient psychiatric beds,” said James Plastiras, spokesman for the office on Thursday. “She will consider the recommendations made by the Behavioral Health Services Advisory Council, as well as recommendations from (Office of Mental Health’s) clinical and program staff and our Western New York field office. The commissioner will also consider feedback received from service providers, advocates and other stakeholders in the region before rendering a decision.”

Even without the commissioner’s blessing, Brooks-TLC appears to have taken matters into their own hands. From the outside, this is just one more foray into a potential catastrophe for the administration and board of directors as well as the community. Brooks-TLC, which had a $20 million deficit in 2019, is going against the wishes of the state by shutting the Irving facility down.

This adds to the dire situation the fragile Brooks-TLC System already faces, since it is being highly subsidized by state funding.

At today’s press conference, elected officials will be joined by TLC-Lakeshore health-care workers who are members of the Service Employees International Union 1199 and other community leaders to raise awareness of the hospital’s defiance of the panel directive and urge the administration to cease its closure efforts, for the good of the region and its employees.

“We invite all community members, staff members, EMS/fire agencies and law enforcement to join us,” a union spokeswoman told the OBSERVER on Wednesday.

One union member, Aubrey Cunningham, lamented about the recent turn of events. “Our administration has proven that they cannot be trusted,” she writes in a column on Page A4 today. “In the past few weeks, we have had to fact-check the information they have given to us, find our own staffing, and advocate for the rights of our patients alone. As we have had to step up and do their jobs for them, it is time for a change.”

Brooks-TLC announced the Lakeshore campus closure in early December. That was approved for Jan. 1 by the state Health Department, but not the Office of Mental Health.