Lakeshore Hospital in Irving.
IRVING – Chautauqua County Legislator George Borello (R-Irving) says he and state representatives are doing all they can to help keep Lake Shore Health Care Center in Irving from closing its doors. Earlier this month, hospital officials said that the facility would be closing in early 2014 due to severe financial issues. The announcement caught the entire community – including local and state officials – by surprise.
Earlier this week, Borello told WRFA that should the hospital be closed, it would be devastating for thousands of residents in northern Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties, as well as southern Erie County.
“This is actually a much larger impact than just the town of Hanover and Irving. That’s perhaps the misconception out there,” Borello said. “This is an impact on folks that live in Angola, in Gowanda, that live onn the Seneca Nation of Indians, into Sheridan. It’s a very wide area.”
Borello also said that a closed Lake Shore hospital could have life-or-death consequences for people who are involved in a health emergency or serious accident.
“Their closest option, with the closing of Lake Shore, will be in Springville. That’s a far distance. Or Dunkirk,” Borello explained. “The emergency services and the lives that are going to be at risk in the event of a heart attack, a stroke or some kind of catestrophic accident, are really the big impact of no longer having an emergency room at Lake Shore Hospital.”
Borello said that he is working the Senator Cathy Young and Assemblyman Andy Goodell on a fact finding mission to determine who Lake Shore got into such financial dire straights and why its board of directors did not notify any public officials.
Meanwhile there are reports that concerned citizens and hospital employees are now circulating a petition to save the Lake Shore Health Care Center. It urges the Lake Erie Regional Health System to reconsider their plans to close the facility.
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