Hosp’s ban on kosher vols hit

A KOSHER KERFUFFLE has broken out at a Murray Hill hospital.

NYU Langone Medical Center is no longer letting volunteers visit patient rooms due to “safety and privacy” concerns.

The new rule has frustrated Orthodox Jewish Satmar Bikur Cholim volunteers, who for years have visited patients and stocked a room inside the hospital with kosher food.

The organization says hospital officials even blocked them from the room earlier this week, a contention NYU Langone denies.

“Now, they can’t bring food into the hospital at all,” said the group’s attorney, Scott Seskin. “It’s very frustrating.”

They have similar rooms with food like fresh challah and gefilte fish in almost every hospital in the city.

Hospitals serve kosher food but the items are frequently frozen for months before they are served.

By contrast, the Bikur Cholim room is constantly restocked with food from top kosher caterers and in some cases homemade items. Friends and family members of patients are also allowed to take the food.

An NYU Langone Medical Center hospital spokeswoman denied blocking the group from the room. In fact, the hospital is in the process of building another room at its Orthopedic Hospital, according to spokeswoman Allison Clair.

But she admitted the volunteers have been barred from patient rooms.

“For the safety and privacy of our patients, we have limited outside volunteers, vendors, delivery people and other non-visitors and staff from going directly onto patient floors, and into patient rooms,” Clair said. “If any family cannot visit the Bikur Cholim room, our volunteers deliver food directly to them consistent with their medical condition.”

She declined to elaborate why the change was enacted and downplayed the hospital hubbub.

“Most of the community and outside organizations understand and agree with this policy, but a few volunteers want unsupervised access to patient floors and rooms and have tried to distort the truth,” she added.

The group’s lawyer speculated hospital management was upset volunteers were counseling Jewish patients to seek costly treatment based on religious beliefs. Torah law generally recommends all medical steps must be taken — like intubating a patient — to prolong life.

“The interests of the community are not aligned with the interests of the hospitals,” said Seskin.

“We don’t want any problems,” he added. “No one is looking for a battle. We just want to take care of the community.”