The Save Beth Israel and NY Eye & Ear Campaign was formed in the fall of 2023 by the merger of the former Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel (2018-21) and the Save NYEEI projects (2022-23). The Campaign brings together community leaders & activists with local public officials in Lower Manhattan along with workers at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEE().  

Community group partners include:

• 504 Democratic Club
• Center for Independence of the Disabled NY
• Chelsea Reform Democrats
• Coalition for a District Alternative (CoDA)
• Community Boards 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
• Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel
• Community Voices for Health System Accountability
• Democratic Socialists of America-NYC
• Downtown Independent Democrats
• Manhattan Community Boards 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6
• Metro New York Health Care for All
• Progressive Action of Lower Manhattan (PALM)
• Save NYEEI
• Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association
• Three Bridges Democrats
• Village Independent Democrats

Local elected official partners include:

• NYS Attorney General Letitia James
• NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
• Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine
• US Rep. Dan Goldman
• US Rep. Jerrold Nadler
• NYS Sen. Kristen Gonzalez
• NYS Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal
• NYS Sen. Brian Kavanaugh
• NYS Sen. Liz Krueger
• NYS Assemblymember Harvey Epstein
• NYS Assemblymember Deborah Glick
• NYS Assemblymember Grace Lee
• NYS Assemblymember Tony Simone
• NYC Councilmember Erik Bottcher
• NYC Councilmember Chris Marte
• NYC Councilmember Keith Powers
• NYC Councilmember Carlina Rivera

Both of BIMC and NYEEI are part of the larger Mount Sinai Health System network in the greater NYC region. BIMC is a general community hospital founded in 1889, and has a long history of pioneering urban health for low-income families and immigrants. It has been serving much of Lower Manhattan as its only community hospital since 2010.  NYEEI is a world-renown specialty hospital founded over 200 years ago.

Since acquiring both BIMC and NYEEI in 2013, Mount Sinai has been systematically removing clinical service units from each facility and moving them uptown to either its main flagship hospital in East Harlem, or to other ones in Morningside Heights or Lincoln Square. As a consequence, both BIMC and NYEEI have become financially unstable.

In the fall 2022, Mount Sinai submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) proposal to the New York State Dept. of Health to merge NYEEI into BIMC, and it was approved in June 2023 subject to certain terms and conditions (which Mount Sinai has yet to fulfill.) In the fall of 2023, Mount Sinai submitted a full closure plan for BIMC to the Dept. of Health, with the goal of shutting it down by July 2024. As a consequence, the future of NYEEI is unknown.

In response, thus Campaign formed to preserve both these hospitals to serve Lower Manhattan, whether as part of the Mount Sinai network or not.