The closure of Carney Hospital can have “serious and significant impacts”

Readers say

I’m a voter from Dorchester. I’m a nurse who works at Carney Hospital. I’m also a bioethicist. I trained as a bioethicist at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School and am currently a professor within the School of Nursing and the Division of Medical Sciences at Northeastern University.

This problem affects me from several directions.

First, as a resident of Dorchester within the Adams Village-Lower Mills area, that is the one lifeline for access to health look after many individuals – in Dorchester, in Mattapan, and even in parts of Roxbury. We serve a really vulnerable and marginalized population. We are an actual safety net for a wide range of issues, including for quite a lot of the Haitian immigrants who’re coming into the country. We are their first point of contact for access to health care.

And it hits me from the attitude of bioethicists. I heard repeatedly on the press conference from US Congressman Stephen Lynch and others that they didn’t see this coming, that they are going to at the very least try [Steward Health CEO] Ralph de la Torre was held accountable, and they’re going to hold Stewart accountable. There are several problems with that. First, this has been foreseeable for a very long time, and other people have seen this coming for years – from day one.

The other aspect is that every one these politicians are talking about equity, about equitable and ethical access. That's what it's about. Mass General and Brigham are in Fenway and Beacon Hill, and all of the hospitals they bought are in Newton, Wellesley, Concord and Martha's Vineyard. Same with Beth Israel Lahey, they're in Burlington, they bought Beverly Hospital, they bought Winchester Hospital. All these hospitals have been allowed to take a position in among the wealthiest communities in our state while those of us in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan are left behind. From an ethical standpoint, that's really concerning.

I believe we’d like to prioritize our health care system. People have let it get completely uncontrolled without even occupied with equitable access to health care. In Boston, in the event you're wealthy, you will have a hospital near you and all of the resources you wish. If you're poor, you only don't have any. And that's the message that's been sent. [at the press conference on July 29].

Luckily, it is a job I only do part-time. But it remains to be a source of income. I really like working here because I really like working with the people here. It's a community hospital, we’re a family. I do know everyone by name, from the housekeepers to the transportation staff to the radiology technicians and the nurses. I’ll miss working and caring for my community, which is another excuse I work here. I’ll have the option to bounce back, thankfully, and I believe many doctors and nurses will have the option to do the identical.

But Carney Hospital is the second largest employer in Dorchester [according to a 2016 report by the Boston Planning & Development Agency, formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority]Many of Carney's employees usually are not doctors and nurses, but emergency room technicians, individuals who work in transportation, within the kitchen or parking – these jobs is not going to be easy to get.

We have an emergency department and an ambulance stationed in Carney and they’re going to must be relocated, so access to emergency services will take lots longer and transport to an appropriate hospital will take lots longer.

We're the emergency room, often the first care provider, the social services, the clothing store, we get people groceries. We're an enormous safety net for the community, they usually're going to be at a loss. We've gotten calls from people asking, “What should I do? Where should I go?”

We had a dialysis unit here. Where are these people going to go? We have 40 beds for the mentally sick that may soon be gone, and that features child care. Those beds might be gone and there might be no place for them to go. That can have a huge effect.

My concern is that politicians usually are not as concerned because they are saying we will either convert this hospital into something that may make cash for the town, like a multi-purpose facility, or we will convert it into transitional housing. And that's all well and good, but you continue to need health care.

The capability of this city is already beyond the capability of the patients we’re treating and admitting. We have had patients transferred to neighboring hospitals, and the capability there’s simply overwhelmed.