A senior mayoral aide said yesterday that the city had received inquiries from private hospitals and medical schools to take over several of the city's hospitals.

Sewage treatment plants receive all types of hazardous waste from hospitals, nursing homes, industry and households.

The department has still not received a response from hospitals in the western part of New York, Ms. Tarlton said.

The Hospital receives referrals for specialized medical care and diagnostic services from various hospitals and clinics in the region.

Thousands of Medicare patients a year file complaints about the quality of care they receive from doctors and hospitals.

He said the group received "fetal organs and parts" from hospitals and supplied them to researchers around the country.

The league, which receives special rates from local laboratories and hospitals, pays all the bills, which sometimes total tens of thousands of dollars.

They also said they had received no complaints from hospitals or mothers.

Mr. Gorman said his office has not received any applications from hospitals seeking money, perhaps because they are leery of taking on debt.

It receives 2,500 emergency transfers a year from other hospitals and logs a total of 210,000 patient days a year.