$1M GRANT TO ALBANY MED SMALL SLICE OF BIG PORK PIE.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: JAMES M. ODATO Capitol bureau

White-frocked doctors joined dark-suited Assembly Democrats Friday for a ceremony -- complete with giant ceremonial check -- at Albany Medical Center.

Hospital officials, announcing a $5 million fund drive to build a better pediatric intensive care unit, readily accepted the promise of $1 million from the Assembly.

``There could hardly be a better use for limited government funds than this pediatric intensive care unit,'' said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat.

The Albany Med award will help improve the hospital's ICU for children. The current unit, the only one for kids in a …