With blood, sweat, tears and hope, Eugene McCabe and Randolph Guggenheimer founded North General Hospital in 1979.

They founded it on the premise that the people of East Harlem and Central Harlem deserved the highest quality healthcare within the boundaries of their own communities.

That is what they wanted, and that is what they accomplished.

Working side by side, Guggenheimer, a white Manhattan lawyer, and McCabe, a Black management consultant, made sure a hospital stayed in that part of Harlem as the Hospital for Joint Disease moved to a swankier part of town and took everything of value with them, and the existing medical facilities – Sydenham Hospital – were slated to close.

The hospital they created was committed to not only the physical health of the community, but to the financial and spiritual well being as well. It was a hospital for the community, by the community. And it has served us well. It is the place that Gov. David Paterson went in 1999 after running the New York City Marathon when his body was having difficulty maintaining its proper temperature, and the North General doctors and nurses made sure he became well.

Like so many institutions in our community, North General was under funded. It did not have the backing of billionaire benefactors, nor did it have wealthy sponsors giving it annual fundraisers. Therefore, the hospital found itself in debt and struggling to stay above water.

But despite its economic challenges, it always remained a committed institution, serving a population that included our working-class people and our poor. And through its history, it remained the only Black-minority-operated, voluntary community teaching hospital in New York State. It has been a place where you could find doctors who were particularly sensitive to the health issues of our community, and you could feel safe and not question whether doctors understood or really cared about you and your issues.

It has been our hospital. And for many African Americans who have been afraid of health professionals and the health care system, the hospital has been an oasis, a place where you could really trust the doctors and nurses because they were fully invested in our community.

Today, North General has a deficit of about $200 million – that is still real money for Black people – a small amount when you think of the teaching and health care role that the hospital has played in our community since its opening in 1979.

Over the last year or so, North General hit many milestones.

North General Hospital received "full accreditation status" for three years. They renovated the emergency room and reopened on October 19. The project was undertaken to accommodate current and future growth and ensure the continued delivery of safe, quality medical services to the patients.

But all of that means little now. In the very near future, the Institute for Family Health, under the direction of President Neil Calman, will take over what was the North General diagnostic and treatment center, the walk-in clinic/primary health care clinic, according to sources. The rest of the hospital will be taken over by Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC) and will become a long-term acute care center with the relocation of the Coler specialty hospital that was on Roosevelt Island.

Governor Paterson, North General Board President Calvin Butts, Mayor Bloomberg and Congressman Rangel have made a Herculean effort to figure out alternative uses for the North General Hospital facilities. But there will be no emergency room. There will be 1,000 healthcare professionals out of work. There will be no more dream of a teaching hospital for our community, by our community. North General as we know it will be gone. And the people of our community will have one less place where they will feel potentially healthy and safe, and that is a shame.