Heights University Hospital in Jersey City shutting its emergency room Saturday night

Heights University Hospital, formerly known as Christ Hospital, is set to shutter its emergency room Saturday night. 

The shutdown will leave thousands with fewer emergency care options. The hospital has been in the community for 150 years.  

Local community members, union leaders and area officials have been trying to prevent the closure. Jersey City Mayor James Solomon called the closure "not acceptable." 

Solomon is calling on Gov. Mikie Sherrill and attorney general to file an immediate injunction to stop the closure and allow the state Department of Health to run it. 

"You can not close a hospital on your own wits. There is a law and a process and procedures that must be followed, and we must make the law mean something. We must enforce the law that exists on the books today, not allow corporations to treat the law as optional," Solomon said. 

A spokesperson for Sherrill said Hudson Regional Health circumvented regulations as it closed the hospital, racking up thousands in penalties which the state aims to collect. 

A small group of protesters gathered outside the hospital Saturday morning. Another group is set to stage a "die-in" outside the hospital Saturday afternoon. 

Christ Hospital closed last November and laid off 150 employees. At the time, it promised to keep the emergency room open. The hospital blamed the closure on cuts to federal funding and state charity care.   

The full closure was initially announced a little more than two weeks ago, and then Hudson Regional Health, its new owners, said it would spend $1 million to keep the ER open for an additional two weeks. A hospital spokesperson said the only way the ER could stay open beyond that would be if it received help from the state. 

Hudson Regional Health said 65% of the people who use the facility are either charity care, undocumented, on Medicaid, or self pay.