Dozens gathered outside Beth Israel hospital in Manhattan Sunday, calling for Mount Sinai to continue service. The network had previously announced plans to fast track the hospital towards a July shutdown.

“Health care is a human right,” was the chant uttered by concerned residents, who joined elected officials in an attempted push to keep the hospital open and get some answers.

“We are sending a message to Mount Sinai Beth Israel that this community is fervently opposed to their closing,” Assemblymember Harvey Epstein said. “[We’re] sending a message to them that we want to have a plan to keep this hospital open, and ensure the cease and desist order remains full force in effect.”

Epstein said he helped organize the gathering, and he admits he’s concerned that the cease and desist order issued in December by the State Health Department is not fully being enforced.

“We’ve heard from people who work in the hospital that they are slowly losing patients,” Epstein said. “They’re slowly losing doctors and nurses and they have an obligation under law not to allow that to happen.”

Epstein said if Mount Sinai moves forward with plans to close Beth Israel in July, he is urging both health department and hospital officials to be more forthcoming about a plan that would prevent the 400,000 or so people nearby who rely on Beth Israel to get adequate care, without overwhelming existing hospitals that are further uptown like Bellevue.

Officials with Mount Sinai said they are not commenting on what they described as an “elected press conference,” however they did say that while an increase in turnover has led to staffing concerns, they are working closely with labor partners to do everything in their power to secure staff.

Two former patients from Manhattan who live below 23rd Street are hopeful that Beth Israel sticks around. Both men offered high praise to the hospital’s staff for helping them survive emergency circumstances.

“I had an emergency a couple of years ago,” Ray Almuvarak said. “I had my appendix removed. I was like two blocks away when the emergency happened. This hospital definitely saved my life.”

“Mount Sinai is the hospital I go to,” Ryan Sheehan said. “I’ve had Crohn’s Disease most of my life, since I was 12. I’ve had 54 surgeries, and I’ve relied heavily on the doctors at Mount Sinai. In an emergency in this city and I’ve had it, you get into an ambulance and even with the sirens, you don’t get anywhere that fast, and having a hospital is really important. I don’t think we can afford to lose much more down here.”

Mount Sinai cities a drop in patients and financial losses of more than $100 million a year, totaling more than $1 billion, as the reason for the plan to close Beth Israel.