FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com MARCH 20, 2014 • The Courier SUN 19 A Better Kind of Cancer Care “At Winthrop, not only are all the cancer services in the same location, so are the physicians.” Dr. Eva Chalas is Winthrop’s Director of Clinical Cancer Services and Chief of Gynecologic Oncology. She joined Winthrop upon completing her fellowship at a major cancer center in New York City. A nationally recognized leader in women’s health and gynecologic cancer, Dr. Chalas was named a “Physician of Distinction” by the American Cancer Society. “Most individuals diagnosed with cancer require multimodality therapy – surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. So there’s real value when a patient’s entire care team is in regular, face-to-face contact, tailoring the best treatment plan for the patient. “Most of our physicians have trained at some of the nation’s top institutions. I like to say I am surrounded by A+ people. The administration here is committed to making sure our cancer services are the absolute best they can be. I’m proud that Winthrop is the only Long Island hospital named on the Becker’s List of hospitals in the United States that provide excellent cancer care.” First Street, Mineola, New York • ..WINTHROP • winthrop.org Leaders say St. John’s Episcopal NOT CLOSING BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com @liamlaguerre If only one thing could be taken away from the St. John’s Episcopal Hospital forum on March 13, it’s that “St. John’s is not closing.” The phrase was repeated numerous times by leaders of the hospital during the meet-and-greet event, which featured hospital chair Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, CEO Richard Brown, a representative from the State Department of Health, and Steve Kramer, executive vice president of the hospital’s employees’ union, 1199 SEIU. State Senator James Sanders put the forum together to allow residents a faceto face conference with the leaders to answer the community’s concerns about the future of the hospital. Instead of closing, everyone in the room was focused on how the hospital and health care in the Rockaways would expand. “My job is to make sure that nobody deviates from the path,” Sanders said. “The bottom line is we are going to save this hospital and we are heading north.” Brown announced updates on the expansion of the hospital’s emergency department. The project will cost an estimated $9 - $10 million, and double the size of the emergency department. The construction will be carried out in three phases over nearly two years. The expansion is lengthy because the emergency department will continue to stay open during construction. Residents, who have complained the department is too small, hope the expansion could happen sooner. “Yes, it’s terrible,” said Rockaway resident Anita Hunter, who was born in the hospital and whose sister currently works there. “You can barely walk in there. There are so many people lined up outside the examination room.” Residents also used the forum to hasten the possible merger between the hospital and Catholic Health Services of Long Island, which would allow St. John’s to expand its services and resources. Brown said the merger was still in the discussion phase. He said metaphorically that St. John’s is “dating” the Long Island organization, but not yet “married” to them. “What we in this room are looking for is to see St. John’s be a first class hospital,” Kramer said. “We ask you, Bishop and CEO Brown, to make moves as quickly as possible to expedite the merger.” Perhaps the most exciting statement made at the meeting, though, was Sanders declaring he would like to see the shuttered Peninsula Hospital used as an additional emergency department. The room was immediately filled with cheers. “I didn’t take this job to lose,” Sanders said. “I didn’t come on to be in charge of the dismantling of health care in the Rockaways. I believe in this place and I believe we can do better.” Arrest man for catalytic converter thefts BY MELISSA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com said. @MelissaCourier The apparent repeat offender had nine prior arrests in New York City, including The 23-year-old Jamaica man arrested one last year for offering an arresting on Long Island last month for stripping officer a $500 bribe from his holding cell in three dozen cars of their costly catalytic Jamaica’s 113th Precinct, according to the converters has a lengthy rap sheet in the NYPD and Queens district attorney’s office. city, officials said. He faces multiple counts of grand larceny Nassau County police charged and auto stripping charges in both Dorient G. Reid in February with grand Nassau and New York City, the police larceny for his eight-month-long raid of departments said. body shop and U-Haul parking lots that Reid will appear in Nassau court on March damaged more than 35 cars and their 28, a spokesperson for the county’s district exhaust systems. attorney said. He also awaits a March 25 Reid crossed the Queens border to try sentencing in Queens Criminal Court after his luck after the NYPD arrested him pleading guilty in the bribery case, according last March for allegedly stealing five to the borough’s district attorney’s office. catalytic converters out of a used auto Catalytic converters, which contain precious parts lot in Jamaica, an NYPD spokesperson metals inside, like platinum, have been the target of a costly citywide crime trend that is now on the decline. In January, police arrested two men in Flushing for allegedly sawing nearly $5,000 worth of devices off eight trucks in a U-Haul storage lot at 36-30 College Point Boulevard, Crime Prevention Officer Anthony Lo Verme of the 109th Precinct said. Since the collar, there have been no new converter thefts in the 109th Precinct, which covers downtown Flushing and upwards to Whitestone, according to Lo Verme. Deputy Inspector Jason Huerta of the 111th Precinct — who reported a spike at the end of last year — believes the arrest will wipe out the crime around Bayside. “We’re hoping that eliminates the problem here,” he said, “and I suspect it will.”
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