AYER, MASS. (WHDH) - Nurses, patients, and public officials shared their reactions Friday after Steward Health Care announced plans to close two hospitals in Dorchester and Ayer.
The embattled private health care company in a statement said it will shutter Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer at the end of August after it was unable to find a qualified bidder to buy either hospital.
Asked for her response, Michelle Travers, a registered nurse at Nashoba Valley, responded.
“[It’s a] very sad day,” she said.
Steward declared bankruptcy earlier this year amid an onslaught of financial issues and scrutiny.
Company officials said they planned to sell all of Steward’s eight operational hospitals in Massachusetts. Though they found no buyers for Carney and Nashoba Valley, Steward on Friday said it is in “active final negotiations” to sell its six other Massachusetts hospitals.
“This is a challenging and unfortunate situation, and the effect it will have on our patients, our employees, and the communities we serve is regrettable,” Steward said. “We will do all we can to ensure a smooth transition for those affected while continuing to provide quality care to the patients we will continue to serve.”
Carney traces its history back to 1863 and is currently licensed for 109 beds, according to the state Department of Public Health.
Nashoba Valley Medical Center was founded in 1964 and is licensed for 57 beds.
In Ayer, employees said they were heartbroken by the news their hospital will be closing.
“We’re just trying to get through the day,” said registered nurse Naomi Andrews. “We’re all in shock because we really thought that we were going to stay open. This community needs us too much.”
Speaking with 7NEWS, nurses said patient care will certainly be impacted by the decision to close Carney and Nashoba Valley.
Nurses also expressed concern for local first responders.
“It will most definitely suffer,” Travers said of patient care. “And the ambulance crews — oh my goodness.”
Ayer’s fire chief said he is concerned it will take longer for ambulances to get to calls.
If ambulances spend more time stuck in traffic on their way to hospitals in Leominster, Concord, or Nashua New Hampshire, Chief Tim Johnston continued, local EMTs will not be as quickly available to respond to additional calls for help.
“Here in Ayer, we have about a 15 to 20 minute turnaround,” he said. “If that were to close, the hospital here in Ayer, that would turn into upwards of an hour.”
Steward’s issues have drawn concern for months, prompting sharp criticism from public officials and loud calls for the company to sell its Massachusetts holdings.
As recently as Tuesday, Gov. Marua Healey told reporters “We have qualified bids for all the hospitals.”
Following Friday’s announcement, some nurses said Healey had been sending out false signals.
“I can’t trust that she actually has this community at the heart as priority one,” Andrews said.
Healey responded to Steward’s plan to close hospitals, saying “This is not over.”
She criticized Steward’s “greed and mismanagement” and said officials “will take all available steps to help facilitate a smooth transition for impacted patients and employees.”
Separately speaking Friday, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll shared her thoughts.
“We continue to do everything we can to ensure patient safety, to protect jobs, to ensure the stability of the healthcare system,” she said at an event in Wellesley. “And it’s definitely unfortunate news.”
The Massachusetts Nurses Association addressed the planned Carney and Nashoba Valley closures in a statement, saying “These two hospitals are absolutely essential to the lives, health and safety of tens of thousands of people in the communities served by these facilities.”
Beyond hospital patients and staff, the nurses association said the closures will ripple across the regional health care landscape as other hospitals absorb new patients once served at Carney or Nashoba Valley.
Before the closure takes effect, the nurses association also called on state officials to enforce a law that requires hospitals to notify the state Department of Public Health at least 120 days before any proposed closure.
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