North Central Bronx Hospital officials stood alongside elected officials in cutting the ribbon on two new ambulance bays near the entrance to its emergency room. The new bays represent some of the new expanded services to a hospital that had long been rumored to close.

“This effectively doubles our previous capacity from two ambulances to four ambulance spaces,” said Cristina Contreras, NCBH executive director, at a news conference Nov. 16

Contreras added the services could lessen the strain area emergency rooms have had to handle. Though Contreras, in a moment of diplomacy, declined to “name names,” she appeared to refer to Montefiore Health System, which made headlines after it was recently criticized for having its ER over capacity.

The news was hailed by Councilman Andrew Cohen and state Sen. Jamaal Bailey, in attendance of the ribbon cutting. “There is an issue of capacity at emergency rooms in and around the Bronx, and this is a relatively modest way to make this emergency room more accessible to people in the Bronx,” said Cohen.

Dr. Mark Melrose, chief of the emergency department, said expanded ER services will limit the hospital’s use in entering into diversion, which calls for hospitals to turn away ambulances if the ER is over capacity. “Hopefully this will increase our ambulance traffic, increase our ability to serve the community, and I think we would all agree it’s a really great thing,” said Melrose.

The news adds more services to the hospital, as previously reported by the Norwood News. 

“This is one small step today in all the big things that are being planned for the community,” said Chris Mastromano, CEO of Jacobi Medical Center, another city-owned hospital,