On Monday, January 21, 2020, the owner of MetroWest Medical Center, Tenet Healthcare, sent a letter to the Department of Public Health informing the agency it plans to issue a 90-day closure notice on February 20, 2020 affecting the Natick location. The proposal is to close the Medical Center's Medical/Surgical Service, Intensive Care Unit, Operating Rooms, Emergency Department, and Outpatient Rehabilitation Service at Metro West Medical Center Leonard Morse Campus at 67 Union Street, Natick.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association represents the 189 registered nurses who work on the Leonard Morse campus, and we are opposed to this closing as it will impact the safety of residents of the Greater Natick region, and result in the added stress to an already overburdened health care system in the region.
This will no doubt result in longer wait times for patients in the Framingham Union and Newton Wellesley emergency departments and in dangerous delays for patients in need of ICU and inpatient care. While we are glad that they are preserving psychiatric services at the facility, Tenet is compromising this program by closing their specialize psychiatric unit within the emergency department, a unique and important service for the care of mental health patients in crisis. Keep in mind across Massachusetts, more than 42,000 patients a year with behavioral health conditions board in emergency departments for days and even weeks waiting for care.
Our organization will be working with local public officials, community groups and local residents to mobilize opposition to this shortsighted and dangerous decision and will be presenting that opposition at the public hearing that DPH will be holding for the community to determine if these are essential services for the health of the community.
