North Adams City Council Adopts Resolution Calling For A Full Hospital
 A crowd of supporters called on the council to adopt a resolution calling for the restoration of hospital services in North Berkshire. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the reopening of the former North Adam Regional Hospital.
Supporters of the resolution filled the City Council chambers Tuesday night in hopes that North Adams would join the list of surrounding municipalities that have supported and sent a resolution to the governor and other state representatives.
Councilor Benjamin Lamb, who submitted the resolution, emphasized the importance of the continued efforts by the community.
"It is really an important facet of this resolution," Lamb said. "While we are the ones that are actually voting if we want to accept this, it is really all of you that brought this to our attention and kept it on the pulse."
The resolution asks for the restoration of a full-service hospital and noted that Northern Berkshire residents are without needed inpatient services.
The hospital was closed in March when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy. Since then, Berkshire Medical Center, based in Pittsfield, has restored emergency and some imaging services and purchased the property. A state-commissioned report concluded a full-service hospital would likely be smaller and require federal Critical Access designation for full Medicare reimbursement.
Councilor Kate Merrigan said the resolution is a "valuable symbolic gesture" that may not bring a hospital back, but sets the right tone.
"You all have been working hard to keep sending the message to people across the state, and to our state leaders that this is a need we have as a community," Merrigan said to the resolution supporters, who have been meeting to strategize weekly since NARH's closure. "I think this is a good opportunity to make that statement in a unified voice."
Michael Fadel, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said that although the recent Stroudwater Associates report did not favor returning the hospital to its former status, it did say there was a need in Northern Berkshire for a smaller form of inpatient care.
"The goal has never been to try to recreate another 100 to 120 bed hospital, but the 19 to 21 bed facility Stroudwater themselves justified," Fadel said. "It is absolutely the case and, it is absolutely doable fiscally and for the health-care needs here."
Fadel said he believes BMC would not have to support a smaller inpatient facility because it would be sustainable and a needed asset for the Berkshires.
"We think it is the regular meetings and the support from elected officials that have kept this front and center," he said. "If that can be escalated at this crucial point there is no reason what inpatient services can't return to a Northern Berkshire regional hospital."
Along with Fadel, residents spoke to the council about the health-care needs of Northern Berkshire that are not being satisfied.
Resident Milton Overlock said he was sent to BMC in Pittsfield because of bleeding but had to wait six hours for confirmation that there was room at the hospital.
"They put me in an ambulance and transported me somewhere for something they could have just put me upstairs if a hospital was there," Overlock said. "I think we need to go for more care up here because the little stuff you can do. There are a lot of things you can die from in the emergency room because they can't do it. We need a full-service hospital."
Resident James Lipa urged city officials to look at creative alternatives that will make a full-service hospital sustainable without relying on Critical Access designation.
"Mass MoCA would have never happened if we didn't think outside of the box," Lipa said. "What we are asking for is our public officials to look outside of the box and look at the revenue streams that could be created in North Adams and give us a hospital."
Adams, Clarksburg, Great Barrington, Hancock and Egremont have already passed similar resolutions. The issue was also presented as a citizen's petition on Tuesday to the Williamstown Selectmen, which delayed a decision because of absent board members.
RESOLUTION
Whereas the sudden and unlawful closure of North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH) on March 28th, 2014 eliminated the only acute inpatient facility and full service Emergency Department serving the 37,000 residents of Northern Berkshire County; and
Whereas the absence of NARH has left most Northern Berkshire County residents without access to inpatient services for over 25 miles, ambulance travel of over 45 minutes in case of emergency, and will cost lives and harmfully impact the health and well-being of thousands of Western Massachusetts residents; and
Whereas the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Service-commissioned Stroudwater Report has confirmed that the health care needs of Northern Berkshire County residents are the greatest in the Commonwealth and has confirmed the need for 18 – 21 acute inpatient beds to meet the needs of northern Berkshire County residents;
Therefore we call upon the Governor of the Commonwealth, the House and Senate of the Commonwealth, the Secretary of the Department of Public Health of the Commonwealth, all state and federal authorities, as well as Berkshire Health Systems to use all possible means to protect the residents of Northern Berkshire County by reopening the former North Adams Regional Hospital as a full-service hospital regardless of whether or not Critical Access Hospital designation is achieved.
Tags: BMC, council resolution, hospital, NARH,
