Scores of workers from Brooklyn’s Interfaith Medical Center and Long Island College Hospital rallied outside Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan office July 8, calling on him to intervene in the current funding crises at their institutions and to stem the tide of hospital closures throughout the borough of Brooklyn.

“We have a lot of very sick patients that come to our hospital that need our care. St. Mary’s closed down. Where will they go if we close? People are going to die,” said Monica Forde, a patient care technician at Interfaith for 13 years. “We want the governor to listen to us and help us to save people’s lives.”

Interfaith, located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, serves a huge swath of central Brooklyn. The hospital provides essential services like emergency medicine, OB-GYN care, substance abuse and mental health treatment. Many Interfaith patients are poor and from underserved communities.

“Politicians don’t really care about our kinds of places,” said Interfaith housekeeper Alexander Achampong. “We have a lot of mentally disabled people and we treat a lot of people with HIV. We are really necessary. We want the governor to listen to us and understand that the city needs this hospital.”

Workers were joined by several elected officials, including New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (who is endorsed by 1199SEIU in the city’s mayoral race), a handful of New York City Council members including Brooklyn’s Steve Levin -- whose district includes Long Island College Hospital -- and 1199SEIU President George Gresham.

“You cannot be the governor of all of the people and cut healthcare for some of the people at the same time,” said Gresham. “Spending time and effort to get casinos and no time and effort to get healthcare is not fair.”

In his remarks, Gresham reminded the governor of 1199SEIU members’ long memory and their activism at election time. “We don’t have permanent friends, we have permanent interests,” said Gresham. “And we’re here today to demand that healthcare stays in the borough of Brooklyn.”