August 20, 2024
Gov. Healey’s plan to seize the St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton and arrange for its transfer to Boston Medical Center will come under more intense scrutiny in coming days as lawmakers —most of them staunch allies of Healey’s— continue to call for her to take similar steps to save Carney Hospital.
Healey has said her decision to take control of the St. Elizabeth’s campus hinged on the willingness of Boston Medical Center (BMC) to operate the hospital. Healey disclosed on Friday that BMC would also step in to buy and operate Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton.
The announcement left many puzzled as to why BMC— a Boston-based health network— would choose not to step in to operate Carney, a critical community hospital in Boston’s largest neighborhood.
In a statement to the Reporter, a spokesperson for BMC said they had “thoroughly evaluated the feasibility for BMC Health System to operate one or more hospitals, while ensuring that BMC remains strong and sustainable for our existing patients and the communities that rely on our health system.”
“Our assessment of Carney Hospital revealed years of underinvestment that would be hard, if not impossible, to reverse. While a bid for Carney Hospital was not feasible, we continue to focus, with our Boston HealthNet community health center partners, on responding to the pending closure, and to working with impacted staff to find opportunities at BMC.”
When The Reporter asked BMC to make its CEO Alastair Bell available for an interview to further explain how and why BMC elected to not include Carney in its expansion plans, a spokesperson replied: “At this time, BMC has no further information to share.”
The governor’s decision to save St. Elizabeth’s, but not Carney, has prompted a sharp critique from many elected officials in Boston— including both representatives in Congress, multiple state lawmakers, and most of the Boston City Council, who approved a resolution 12-0 calling for a public health emergency to be declared.
On Monday, State Rep. Brandy Fluker Oakley became the latest lawmaker to urge the Healey administration to act to prevent the closure of Carney Hospital.
“The Governor’s ability to implement a plan to save the other Steward hospitals, but not the Carney begs the question of what due diligence was done to secure an acceptable provider for our hospital,” said Rep. Fluker Oakley. “Equity demands the executive office leave no stone unturned in ensuring that this hospital in the heart of the city remains open.”
Multiple elected officials— including Congressman Stephen F. Lynch and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley— have called on Healey to change course on her approach to Carney's closure. Other political leaders who have made similar statements since Friday include Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, State Sen. Liz Miranda, Sen. Nick Collins, City Councillors Brian Worrell, John FitzGerald, Erin Murphy, Julia Mejia, and Ed Flynn.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu stopped short of calling for Healey to intervene on the Carney closure, but praised the governor's "decisive action" on behalf of St. Elizabeth's in a statement released late in the day on Friday.
Healey announced that there is an "agreement in principle" for BMC to buy St. Elizabeth's from Steward. But the hospital's Brighton real estate (as with the other Steward hospitals here) is controlled by Medical Properties Trust and its mortgage lender, Apollo Global Management.
The $4.5 million that Healey's administration offered Apollo for the St. Elizabeth's land is the "appropriate and fair market value of that property," the governor told reporters last Friday.
But the offer letter says that the amount is "based on the current third-party offer for St. Elizabeth's Medical Center." The Boston assessor's office lists the assessed value of the land at 736 Cambridge St., where St. Elizabeth's is located, at just under $51 million.
The governor said the state must pursue an eminent domain taking for St. Elizabeth's after negotiations with Apollo proved unsuccessful and the company "refused to move." Apollo declined to comment Monday on the governor's announcement.
"We will go forward from there with a further submission of an order, essentially, to take that property," Healey said Friday when asked what comes after the state's offer letter.
Steward is expected to reveal in court filings early this week more details of the deals apparently in place to sell St. Elizabeth's to BMC as well as to transfer four other Steward hospitals on five campuses to new owners: Lawrence General Hospital will buy the Holy Family Hospital facilities in Methuen and Haverhill, Lifespan will take over Morton Hospital in Taunton and Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River, and BMC will also buy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, as long as the deals are finalized and approved.
State House News Service reports contributed to this article
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