For the past few weeks, hope that a health care provider would save Jamaica’s 108-year-old Mary Immaculate Hospital seemed to fade with each IV pole, stretcher and stack of office paper loaded into moving vans.

The Oct. 15 sale of Mary Immaculate Hospital, along with St. John’s Queens Hospital, to a developer appeared to be the end of the line for the two medical centers.

Brooklyn-based firm J. Guttman Realty purchased the hospitals at auction for $26.63 million. The hospitals shut last February after their owner, Caritas Healthcare, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

After the auction, the Guttman firm announced it plans to use Mary Immaculate for office space, educational and religious facilities.

That came as sad news to many in the neighborhood. Southeast Queens currently has the lowest ratio of doctors to patients in the borough, with 48 primary care doctors per 100,000 people. North of the area, there are 132 doctors per 100,000 people.

“The people in downtown Jamaica and a lot of other people who have lost their jobs and are fending for themselves, they don’t have the ability to go to these other locations and seek doctors out,” said Eugenia Ruddman, president of Hollis Park Gardens Civic Association and member of SQUISH, or Southeast Queens in Support of Health Services, a coalition of community groups and residents formed when Mary Immaculate first faced the threat of closure.

Some 3,000 workers were laid off when the two hospitals closed, but a few stayed on to maintain the buildings until they were sold. The day of the sale, two of a handful of workers left at Mary Immaculate Hospital paused to reflect on the hospital, and the fate of the community they have worked in for over two decades.

Mourners gathered at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church on Oct. 17 to bury the dead, but this was no ordinary funeral.

Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians escorted two caskets – one a small, white children’s casket with golden angels; the other larger and pearl-colored – into the church as bagpipes played “Amazing Grace.”

The two coffins contained the final remains of immigrants who died over 150 years ago.

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With the economy down, most of us could use a drink right about now. The only problem is that spending $12 on a cocktail in a swanky Manhattan bar seems excessive, even in boom times.

So many New Yorkers are heading to where the drinks are free: the burgeoning open bar scene.

“Open bar is suddenly the coolest thing in the world,” said Seva Granik, one of the founders of Myopenbar.com, billed as “your guide to free booze.”

“There’s definitely more interest in spending less money,” Granik said, who noted the New York section of his four-year-old site gets about 2,500 to 3,000 hits per day.

Very Happy Hours

The good news for broke party animals is that there are plenty of free drinks to enjoy in New York. Various bars run promotional events where the free drinks flow in hopes of luring customers. Still, the tap is running dry at some joints where customers flee after the happiest of happy hours.

“I wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t for the open bar,” Lisa Onderdonk, 21, said, sipping her free vodka cocktail at Highbar in Midtown. “I’m sure a lot of these people will stay.”

The open bars generally are sponsored by a specific liquor brand or paid for by the bar owners. Most take place in the early evening for a limited period to help draw crowds at off-hours. Some bars restrict drink choices – don’t expect always to pound down shots of top-shelf hooch for free.

“The catch is that it’s not every drink,” noted Steven Cobb, 21, a wardrobe stylist who frequents open bars.

Thirst for Profits

Some establishments are expanding open bar hours, encouraged by early success.

Last Spring, Crash Mansion on the Lower East Side experimented with running an open bar on Tuesdays in addition to a long-standing Friday night special. The open bars are organized in conjunction with live music shows, which has proven to be a successful combination.

“We get 150 to 300 people,” said Stephanie Adamo, a talent buyer for Crash Mansion. “These are definitely big draw nights.”

Despite the benefits of throwing open bar parties, things can also go wrong – at least from the organizer’s perspective.

“When the open bar finishes, the girls are gone,” said Rory Biscette, a promoter for Clubfix.net. “The guys will stay longer.”

Granik said there’s a risk people will just “roll in and drink the free booze” unless the bar offers an additional incentive for staying.

Mercury Bar in Murray Hill learned that lesson the hard way. The bar offered patrons free drinks on Thursday nights for three months, but didn’t get enough return business.

Ladies Night Rules

Darin Sergent, the bar’s general manager, said customers were just “downing drinks” and “double fisting.”

“We were really losing too much money,” he said. “It just seemed to backfire. It was very disappointing for us.”

However, Mercury Bar still run a Ladies Night promotion on Wednesdays from 8 to 9 p.m., when women get free Cosmopolitans, Martinis and well drinks.

“We are still getting a positive return on that,” said Sergent, adding that Ladies Night brings in the guys, who then buy drinks for the women after the promotion ends.

The actors ran barefoot on a sandy beach and projected their lines over the cries of seagulls. The audience sat in 1,500 white folding chairs on a boardwalk across from a mural of Henry Hudson’s landing on Coney Island.

This was not a typical production of “The Tempest.”

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