A working group meant to advise state and city leaders on the impacts of the closure of Carney Hospital— and next steps to replace it— is still in formation this week, seven days after Gov. Maura Healey announced its launch. The Dorchester group, and a second like it that will focus on Nashoba Valley, will include “key stakeholders” including public health officials, labor leaders, doctors, and elected officials.

The Carney-focused group will be co-chaired by Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, the commissioner of Public Health for the City of Boston, and Michael Curry, president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. Other members of the working group will include health care industry and union leaders, elected officials, and members of the community chosen by state officials and Mayor Wu.

The group is expected to meet in public on at least one occasion, the Reporter is told, and will likely hold smaller, internal meetings as well with a goal of ending its work by the end of December and making recommendations in early 2025.

Carney closed on Aug. 31, shutting Boston’s largest neighborhood and adjacent communities off to swift access to acute health care services for the first time in modern history. A small group of physicians continue to provide select services to patients during scheduled office hours in an adjacent building, the Seton Medical building.

In a statement on Sept. 25, Gov. Healey said the two working groups will be asked to make “recommendations to officials at the state and local level to promote equitable access to care.”

“Our administration recognizes the widespread impacts that a hospital closure has on its community,” Healey said. “Massachusetts is home to the brightest minds in health care, human services, education, business and government. We’re going to bring together community and industry leaders to develop a game plan to not only protect but improve health care in the regions most impacted by Steward’s greed and mismanagement.” 

Healey’s chief advisor on public health issues – Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh, said: “We are excited to reimagine a health care delivery system that is centered on patients and the health needs of their community.” 

Mayor Wu praised the idea and said the group “should be a process that strengthens access to care for Boston residents” and Dr. Ojikutu added: “As we plan for the future, the City of Boston looks forward to working with the state and other stakeholders to ensure that the former Carney hospital site remains a necessary resource for health and wellness for our city’s residents.” 

In an interview with the Reporter on Oct. 1, the BPHC’s Ojikutu told the Reporter that when it comes to recommendations that the group may make, “all options in regards to health care delivery are on the table.”

Dr. Ojikutu said that the impacts, so far, of the Carney closure are what she expected: additional pressures on staffing and wait times at other facilities, including Dorchester and Mattapan’s network of community health centers and Boston Medical Center.

“The issue is there’s a gap that been left and there were already these inequities that have been compounded,” she said. “This may be our opportunity figure it out.”

Michael Curry, who will co-chair the group, said Gov. Healey called him personally to ask him to help lead the effort.

"There has been no constraints put on the conservations that this working group will have," Curry told the Reporter. "In the absence of constraints, we’ll be looking at how to maintain urgent care, behaviorial health, and other needs as part of our analysis and reccomendations."

Curry said he hoped that the group would come to consensus by the end of the year and deliver a report to the governor and mayor by "early next year."

"I've talked to no one that doesn’t see a path forward for some model of care," Curry said of the Carney's future use.

Councillor John FitzGerald, a vocal proponent of keeping the Carney open before its expedited closure in August, said he will be a member of the working group.

“I’m itching to get going,” FitzGerald said on Tuesday. “We have been working very hard behind the scenes to rethink the health care services in this community and I am excited to see a formalized body to help push these solutions to reality.”

Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune outlined her expectations for the Carney site on WCVB’s “On the Record” program.

“We have to make sure that it continues to be a health care facility for our residents,” Louijeune said of Carney’s future. She described the loss of Carney as a “really big blow to the neighborhood.

“But we have heard very clear from the communities that use it, the Dorchester community, the Mattapan community, the Vietnamese community, the Haitian community, that we need health care,” she said. “The psych beds that were there, the urgent care that was there, EMS depended on Carney so much. We need to make sure that we have a health care facility there.”

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