AYER — In a packed and full of life City Corridor Tuesday morning, state and native officers decried the announcement by Steward Health Care final week that the corporate can be closing Nashoba Valley Medical Middle in Ayer and Carney Hospital in Dorchester amid the corporate’s ongoing monetary disaster.
State Rep. Margaret Scarsdale referred to as the choice by Steward to shutter the 2 hospitals one other instance of Steward’s “callous, corporate greed.”
“This is a horrible reminder of what happens when profit is put before people’s health, and is put before people’s lives,” stated Scarsdale.
Scarsdale, like a number of others who spoke through the well-attended press convention, stated the closure of NVMC would end in lack of life, primarily as a result of important improve in medical response instances which are anticipated to impression the realm served by the hospital.
“Those warnings have been ignored by Steward. So while [CEO] Ralph de la Torre lounges on one of his yachts, our residents will be paying the cost for this,” stated Scarsdale. “Shame on Steward, shame on Ralph de la Torre, shame on a health care system that puts profits over people.”
Ayer City Supervisor Robert Pontbriand stated closure of the hospital in his city is solely “not an option.”
“The stakes are too high, and we are on a critical threshold where anything shy of staying open is just not acceptable,” stated Pontbriand. “This hospital is a critical public health facility … If it closes, you are looking at response times increasing, in Ayer’s case, from 10 to 15 minutes, to over an hour.”
Pontbriand stated retaining the hospital open and avoiding these journey time will increase would require state monetary help. He identified the management inside NVMC is actively engaged on securing a bid for buy.
Ought to both, or each, of the 2 hospitals in query shut, there are more likely to be impacts past the boundaries of the areas lined by each amenities, as folks in these areas who’re in want of medical care will then must journey and presumably take up beds in different hospitals within the state.
Within the space of Leominster and Fitchburg, an analogous state of affairs performed out in recent times with the closure of the maternity ward in UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Hospital Leominster Campus final fall. State Rep. Natalie Higgins stated NVMC closing would “impact the entire North Central region” and past in Massachusetts.
“The ripple effects of this closure will impact the entire commonwealth,” stated Higgins. “We have some of the best public health care in the world. Too many of our community members do not have access to it because we continue to allow hospitals to be shut down.”
Fitchburg Mayor Samantha Squailia questioned the for-profit well being care mannequin that she stated has contributed to the closure of hospitals and reductions in companies.
“When are we going to realize our profit-driven health care system is killing us? It is hurting our most vulnerable people,” stated Squailia.
In an announcement by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren learn by her Regional Director Yeji Lee, Warren referred to as well being care “a basic human right.”
“So to CEO Ralph de la Torre, and Steward’s entire executive team, and to all the private equity investors who think they can gut our health care systems to make a quick buck, let me be clear: We will do everything in our power to make sure you aren’t allowed anywhere near the head of a health care facility ever again,” stated Warren’s assertion.
A few of those that spoke criticized Gov. Maura Healey’s administration’s dealing with of the Steward disaster, and referred to as for higher transparency from the state authorities via this course of.
This included Massachusetts Nurses Affiliation Lead Negotiator for NVMC Audra Sprague, a registered nurse who has labored on the hospital for 17 years, who stated the monthslong Steward chapter saga has left the docs and nurses “in the dark” concerning the hospital’s future. Sprague pointed to Healey’s announcement simply final week that each one eight of Steward’s Massachusetts hospitals had acquired qualifying bids, when days later got here the announcement of the deliberate closures of two of them.
“We call on Governor Healey, House Speaker [Ronald] Mariano, Senate President [Karen] Spilka and our municipal leaders to take immediate action to ensure the continued operation of our hospital,” stated Sprague. “This includes declaring a public emergency to protect Nashoba Valley Medical Center.”
She additionally referred to as on the state to implement a regulation mandating a 120-day interval of discover earlier than a hospital can shut, whereas Steward introduced each amenities can be closed “on or around” Aug. 31.
Sprague referred to as the distinction between a 15-minute experience to the hospital and a 50-minute experience the identical as “the absolute difference between life and death” in lots of conditions.
After the press convention ended, Sprague stated via this complete saga the docs and nurses at NVMC have been studying of every piece of stories similtaneously the remainder of most of the people, together with Friday’s information of the plan to shut the power.
Dr. Christina Hernon, an emergency doctor at NVMC, has firsthand expertise of the truth that in a medical emergency seconds can matter, and minutes may be lethal. She stated she will recall cases the place a affected person entered the emergency room simply in time, after they seemingly would have died if the hospital was additional away.
“There are times when people literally walk through the emergency room doors with someone, a child, blue and floppy in their arms, or a tractor just ran over them,” stated Hernon. “There are times when that 30-minute drive is literally the difference between life and death. Make no mistake, there will be lives lost as a result of this.”
A listening to for the sale of the opposite Steward hospitals in Massachusetts was initially scheduled for Wednesday, however has been rescheduled to Aug. 13, in accordance with courtroom filings.
In a letter launched Tuesday morning, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan referred to as on the U.S. Division of Justice and different federal businesses to analyze Steward.
“I write to you with great urgency to ask you to heavily scrutinize these closure announcements as well as the decisions by Steward C.E.O Ralph de la Torre and his colleagues that led to this outcome, including the reported surveillance of potential critics and whistleblowers who could have sounded the alarm on this crisis sooner,” Trahan wrote. “Accordingly, I also urge you to hold Mr. de la Torre and his co-conspirators accountable for their roles in causing this crisis and increase transparency and accountability for predatory private equity firm purchases of healthcare systems in the future.”
Within the letter, Trahan pointed to studies of the extraordinarily excessive incomes of Steward executives whereas the hospitals have been struggling, and an alleged $7 million surveillance marketing campaign Steward carried out on potential whistleblowers and critics.
“As PE investments continue to rise in the healthcare industry, we have seen an increase in bad actors using the healthcare system to make a quick profit at the expense of patients and providers,” Trahan wrote. “These predatory private equity companies have placed stakeholder profits squarely above the communities they are supposed to serve.”
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