It is no surprise to area health experts that the closing of the Nashoba Valley Medical Center in August has disrupted emergency services and, more broadly, health care throughout the region. Is it as bad as predicted? asked moderator Jason Kauppi at a recent discussion hosted by the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce. Yes, answered a four-member panel of local leaders. The disruptions are serious and not sustainable.
It’s convenient—and perhaps just—to blame the entire problem on Steward Health Care. But that won’t solve the problem. There seems to be broad agreement that an emergency room or, at the very least, a high-end urgent care facility is needed to relieve the stress on the emergency services of the 16 towns the hospital once served. And it’s good news that the working group appointed by Gov. Maura Healey has appointed a subcommittee whose focus, as described elsewhere in the paper, is the abandoned medical campus in Ayer and restoration of its emergency department.
But as the subcommittee’s co-chair, Ayer Town Manager Robert Pontbriand, said Tuesday, the goal can’t be accomplished without the direct involvement of the governor, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and Department of Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein.
“The working group has no budget specifically, nor does the working group have the authority to negotiate with any operators,” Pontbriand said. “The two biggest obstacles are the operator and the funding, and that needs to come from the state.”
Pontbriand reminded attendees at the Chamber of Commerce event that the state had intervened this summer to ensure four Steward Health Care-owned hospitals could survive, seizing St. Elizabeth’s by eminent domain and providing an additional $70 million to support their transfer to new owners. An Aug. 29 Boston Globe article reported that unnamed state officials expected the acquisitions, repairs, and operating support for the four hospitals would cost the state, the federal government, and other Massachusetts hospitals as much as $700 million by 2027. “We expect the same consideration from the state,” said Pontbriand.
So should residents of every Nashoba Valley town formerly served by the hospital, and so should our state representatives, senators Jamie Eldridge and John Cronin and representatives Dan Sena and Margaret Scarsdale. When the bills come due, we will expect their advocacy and support.
