New York State on Monday awarded a $9.4 million grant to an Upper East Side hospital to run an urgent care center that would treat the minor emergencies of some patients displaced by the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village.

The two-year grant, announced by Gov. David A. Paterson, would help Lenox Hill Hospital set up a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week center on the site of St. Vincent’s until a long-term site is found.

St. Vincent’s, which has been phasing out operations, announced on Monday that it would finally close its emergency room at 8 a.m. on April 30.

Patients who needed “more elaborate care,” the governor said, would be transported to either Lenox Hill or other hospitals by ambulances run by North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. That system runs several hospitals, mainly in Queens and on Long Island, and has been negotiating to add Lenox Hill to its stable of hospitals.

Terry Lynam, a spokesman for North Shore-Long Island Jewish, said the urgent care center would be able to treat about 25,000 patients a year; St. Vincent’s emergency department treated about 60,000 patients a year.

Lenox Hill’s contract is for five years.

Mr. Lynam said the center would probably not treat anything as serious as a heart attack. “Urgi-centers by their nature are for lower threshold illness and injuries,” he said.

The urgent care center had been pursued by Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, and other politicians as a way to continue providing some level of emergency care in the Village after the loss of St. Vincent’s. But many St. Vincent’s doctors and surrounding residents have complained that it would not really fill the void.

Mr. Paterson also announced an award of $4.6 million to expand four clinics affiliated with St. Vincent’s, which he said would also help pick up displaced patients.

(Source: NY Times)