by John Osborn ·
Thursday, September 26, 2024
After weeks of silence following the closing of the Nashoba Valley Medical Center, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced Wednesday that it will convene a working group to “stabilize and revitalize” health care in the Nashoba Valley region. A second group will be assembled to deal with problems created by the closing of Carney Hospital in Dorchester.
The administration also informed the towns most heavily impacted by Nashoba’s closing, including Harvard, that they can apply for grants of up to $250,000 to purchase additional equipment and defray the cost of transporting patients to more distant and overcrowded emergency rooms.
Nashoba Valley Medical Center, including its emergency room, ICU, and 16-bed geriatric psychiatric unit, closed Aug. 31. Harvard patients with a medical emergency are now transported to Emerson Hospital in Concord or UMass Memorial in Leominster.
The Nashoba Valley working group will be chaired by Robert Pontbriand, Ayer’s town manager and an outspoken advocate for the hospital, and by Joanne Marqusee, assistant secretary in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The announcement states that its members will include representatives of area hospitals, community health centers, physicians, public health agencies, labor unions, emergency service providers, community leaders, and elected and local government officials.
“Using data, community feedback, and input from key stakeholders in each community, the working groups will bring recommendations to state and local officials to promote equitable access to care,” the announcement said.
Harvard Town Administrator Dan Nason told the Press Thursday afternoon that he first learned of plans for a working group two weeks ago through his contacts in the office of U.S. Representative Loriu Trahan, but had received no further information on when the group would meet or who would be included. Pontbriand, the committee co-cahir, was not available for comment.
Nason said he learned of the emergency grants yesterday and had circulated the news to Harvard’s town departments. He said he expected Harvard would apply.
In a phone conversation Thursday afternoon Harvard’s state Sen. Jamie Eldridge confirmed that he and state Rep. Dan Sena would participate in the working group, along with other area legislators.
Eldridge described the formation of a working group as a positive action by the governor.” But he noted that the purpose of the working group was to address the gaps in health care caused by the hospital closing and to rethink health care access in the Nashoba Valley region— not the reopening of the empty hospital.
“I do want to make it clear,” Eldridge said, “just speaking for myself, separate from the working group, that I continue to advocate and do outreach to find a bidder to bring back the hospital.” So far, he said, no bids have been submitted and the vacant hospital buildings and grounds now belong to the real estate group Apollo Global Management.
To read the full text of the governor’s announcement, go to: https://www.mass.gov/news/healey-driscoll-administration-announces-working-groups-focused-on-ensuring-health-care-in-communities-impacted-by-steward-closures