Gov. Maura Healey is halting her plans to shut a Cape Cod psychiatric hospital and a Canton youngsters’s rehab hospital after listening to “directly” from neighborhood members about how vital the amenities are.
1000’s of involved stakeholders sounded the alarm instantly after Healey proposed to shut Pocasset Psychological Health Middle in Bourne and Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Kids in Canton to save cash within the state funds.
Sufferers, households and staffers are scheduled to assemble on the State Home Tuesday morning for a rally and assembly with lawmakers to focus on the companies supplied on the state-owned hospitals and why they’re important.
The occasions will likely be met with some aid no less than for now after Healey introduced Monday night that she has frozen her plans.
“I’m deeply grateful for (the community’s) feedback,” the governor stated in an announcement simply earlier than 6:30 p.m., “as well as for the hard work of our teams at the Department of Public Health and Department of Mental Health, who are focused on ensuring that all patients receive the high-quality, modernized, specialized care they need and deserve.
“At this time,” she continued, “I’ve directed them to pause their plans to close Pappas and Pocasset so that we can bring together a diverse group of stakeholders – including patients, families, labor, local officials, and medical professionals– to conduct a further review of the care offered at these facilities and make recommendations on the best path forward to ensure we are providing the highest quality of care with the resources at hand.”
Healey proposed consolidating the hospitals to avoid wasting a projected $31 million in her $62 billion funds request for the subsequent fiscal 12 months — a 7.4% improve over present spending that the governor has described as “balanced” and “fiscally responsible.”
The Healey administration had emphasised how the governor wouldn’t want legislative approval to shut the hospitals — a choice that may jeopardize no less than 281 state jobs.
Pocasset is a 16-bed inpatient acute psychological well being stabilization heart that provides therapy to sufferers no less than 19 years previous.
Pappas is a 60-bed rehab hospital serving 36 sufferers who vary in age from 7 to 22 and have bodily and cognitive disabilities, in addition to continual and medically advanced circumstances requiring hospital-level care.
If Pappas shuts down, the plan would switch companies from Canton to Western Massachusetts Hospital, greater than 100 miles away, in Westfield.
