Pol rips slow-go Bx. hosp

Eye on Montefiore

Montefiore Medical Center is an “entrenched, arrogant bureaucracy” that offers “substandard” emergency care to Bronx patients, a city lawmaker railed Saturday as he demanded a probe into long wait times and overcrowding.

Montefiore — which operates three emergency rooms in the borough — routinely subjects patients to “interminable” waits, only to treat them in crowded hallways due to a chronic shortage of beds, Councilman Ritchie Torres told The Post on Saturday.

Montefiore is politically connected and well-funded, too, Torres said, noting its longstanding and deep ties to city and state leadership — its CEO, Dr. Steven Safyer, served on then-Mayorelect Bill de Blasio’s transition team.

And its high-volume Bronx outposts are the largest recipient of city Medicaid dollars, Torres said.

It's time they are held accountable, he said.

“Why are we relegating vulnerable patients to cramped and crowded hallways, where the risk of infection is high and there’s no privacy for interviews and physical exams and toileting — and there’s constant light and noise that prevents you from sleeping,” said Torres. “It’s the antithesis of care.”

On Friday, Torres sent a letter to the city Department of Investigation urging that it “probe Montefiore’s practice of placing Medicaid recipients in crowded hallways that neglect patient care.”

City Health + Hospitals CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz is about to be appointed to a seat on the Board of Heath by de Blasio, Torres said.

When that appointment comes before the council’s rules committee, Torres said, he will grill Katz on what he’ll do about Montefiore’s ER overcrowding problem.

Torres chairs the council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, and Montefiore is within his 15th Council District.

Torres was moved to action last month, he said, after a dozen Montefiore nurses reached out to him, describing the overcrowding.

At the ER on Gun Hill Road on Saturday, the waiting room was packed and beds were squeezed in the hallways.

“So far, it’s been three hours,” sighed Priscilla Rodriguez, 28, of Bedford Park, while waiting with a broken ankle. “This is ridiculous.” The DOI would only say that it has received Torres’ letter. Montefiore reps did not respond to a request for comment.