Months after Steward Health Care's bankruptcy forced the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, first responders in the area are calling for help from Massachusetts leaders.
Over a dozen fire chiefs from communities in the area say their emergency medical services are on the verge of collapsing. They signed a letter to Gov. Maura Healey last month, along with town leaders and state lawmakers.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
"The closure of the NVMC has created a crisis situation for Emergency Medical Services on multiple fronts due to the increased distances and times for ambulances and first responders to travel outside of the Nashoba Valley to Leominster, Concord, Lowell, or Nashua, NH," the letter reads.
Get top local stories in Boston delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Boston's News Headlines newsletter.
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
"People that are in an ambulance that now is takes, say, 40 minutes or an hour to get to another hospital, the reality is for someone maybe with a heart attack, with serious injuries from a car accident, those people are more likely to die," Democratic Massachusetts State Sen. Jamie Eldridge, who signed the letter, told NBC10 Boston Wednesday.
The fire chiefs are asking for urgent funding of $9.6 million from the supplemental budget.
Part of that money would be used to prioritize personnel costs and equipment to 13 communities and to conduct an independent study of the Nashoba Valley EMS response system.
"It would make a tremendous difference, in just hearing from the fire chiefs, from the town managers, about the really difficult situations these communities are in, that residents are in," Eldridge said. "The stress level of these professionals has just reached an all-time high."
NBC10 Boston reached out to Healey. In a statement, she said her office would continue to stay in close communication with fire chiefs and local officials.
"We convened a working group of community members that is hard at work finding solutions to protect and expand access to high-quality health care in the region," Healey said in the statement.
