Healey administration’s Steward policy faces increasing pressure

“Aren’t we Bostonians?” asked resident Clifton Braithwaite, who said Carney had saved his mother’s life. “Carney was there for me and helped me stand by my mother through her difficult time… We need to keep this hospital open, period, by any means necessary.”

Nurses who worked at Carney for decades and residents whose families were cared for there for generations criticized the state for its inaction. “We have given our careers and our blood, sweat and tears to this community,” said Elaine Graves, a Carney nurse for 48 years. “We are angry and saddened by the state’s decision to abandon our hospital.”

Other speakers described the closure of Carney and other hospitals in low-income or working-class communities as a civil rights issue, reflecting a growing gap in health care between rich and poor.

“If this hospital was called Newton-Wellesley instead of Carney, this hearing (on the closure) would not be happening,” said community activist Bill Walczak, founder of Codman Square Health Center and former president of Carney, to a standing ovation.

Many at the hearing blamed Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre and other executives at the for-profit health system for “looting” their hospitals and enriching themselves at the expense of patients. But the strongest criticism was directed at the Healey administration for what many called its passivity in fighting hospital closures.

“The state is allowing this closure at a time when other emergency departments in the city are already overwhelmed,” said Katie Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents more than 3,000 nurses at Steward hospitals in the state, including 240 at Carney who have been issued a layoff notice. “There is no moral or medical justification for this closure.”

Murphy said she was “deeply disappointed” that Gov. Maura Healey and legislative leaders did not attend the hearing “to hear from the people who were impacted by their decision” to allow hospitals to close.

Healey has blamed the closure of Carney and Nashoba hospital on “greed and mismanagement” by Steward leaders and other financial players who backed the company or bought the hospitals’ properties. “This is really not up to me,” Healey said in an interview on WBUR’s Radio Boston this week. “Right now it’s all up to Steward and the lenders.”

But senior administration officials have been deeply involved for months in ongoing multipartisan talks to sell Steward hospitals in Massachusetts, while also negotiating with potential buyers about arranging transitional government funding packages totaling at least $80 million a year — and potentially more — over the next three years.

State officials have also been working with other hospitals and health centers in eastern Massachusetts to prepare for a new health care landscape following the Steward Hospital sales.

In part because of the bankruptcy process, state officials say they have limited regulatory authority to prevent hospital closures. “We can’t force a hospital to stay open,” said state Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, who attended the Dorchester hearing.

A bill that would have restricted private equity purchases of hospitals to prevent another Steward scenario failed to pass the Legislature’s recently concluded session.

Given those dynamics, attorneys representing Massachusetts did not object to Steward’s plan to close Carney and Nashoba Valley hospitals on an accelerated timeline at a bankruptcy hearing July 31 in Houston, where it was approved by a federal judge. Steward’s attorneys told the judge that those hospitals had not received any qualified bids.

Speakers at Florian Hall sharply criticized state officials for pointing the finger at Steward’s leaders as they acted helplessly to fight the closures, and for failing to try to enforce a Massachusetts law requiring hospitals to give 120 days’ notice before closing their doors. Steward announced the closure of the two hospitals on July 26. They also criticized the state for giving residents less than a week’s notice about the closure hearings.

“Since when do the leaders of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts allow a bankruptcy judge in Houston, Texas, to determine how health care is provided in this state?” Walczak asked, to loud cheers.

In response to the criticism, a spokesman for the governor issued a statement Wednesday that again placed blame on Steward.

“Community members, nurses and healthcare workers are rightly angry about the closure of these two hospitals,” the statement said. “The governor is angry, too. It should never have come to this, but these hospitals were not given qualified bids after Steward’s utter mismanagement. Our administration is working around the clock to protect jobs and transitional care in these communities, to save the remaining hospitals, and to clean up the mess Steward has put us in.”

More criticism can be expected Thursday night at the Devens Commons Center, in the north-central Massachusetts area served by Nashoba Hospital, and at two virtual hearings scheduled for Wednesday and next Monday.

At the Florian Hall meeting, Dana Simon, an organizer for the nurses union, ran through a litany of past hospital closures in Massachusetts, including the Steward-owned Quincy Medical Center and North Adams Regional Hospital in Berkshire County, along with moves to eliminate medical services at other Steward hospitals. After each example, she concluded with the refrain: “And the state did nothing.”

Health Commissioner Goldstein said the hearing was “moving and powerful, and also sad.” He said emotions ranged from “deep sadness to frustration, concern and anger” in the community.

“The pain in that room was truly palpable,” Goldstein told the state’s Board of Public Health on Wednesday. “Carney Hospital has been a cornerstone of the Dorchester community, a trusted health care resource that has represented healing, comfort and hope for generations of residents.”

Goldstein said Carney’s “loss will be deeply felt.”

Robert Weisman can be reached at [email protected].