Opponents of the closure say over 100,000 patients would have to travel to Worcester for the same care.
Massachusetts health officials are calling a Leominster hospital's controversial proposal to close a maternity ward inadequate.
The UMass Memorial Health Alliance-Clinton Hospital's Leominster campus was set to shut down its inpatient maternity unit later this month.
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Last month, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health pressed hospital administrators for a more detailed plan.
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"Based upon the information provided to date, the Department does not believe the Hospital's closure plan is adequate, particularly as related to transportation and community engagement via the HRiA assessment, to allow for closure on September 23, 2023," the DPH said in a letter Friday to the hospital's attorney. "In your follow up response to the Department, please include a viable closure date beyond September 23, 2023."
Groups have been fighting to save the birthing center since UMass Memorial announced plans to close it in May. Critics said patients would be required to travel to Worcester for similar services.
Earlier this week, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said the hospital had "failed miserably" to maintain access to maternal care.
"We thank the Department of Public Health for taking the full development of a plan seriously and for looking out for the most vulnerable in our community. Their response today solidifies that the hospital was supposed to submit a plan, not a plan to complete a plan," Mazzarella said in a statement Friday. "With the DPH response today, the process goes on to ensure that the health and well being of expectant mothers and their newborns will be protected no matter what the final outcome of the process is."
The DPH asked the hospital for more information, including on how patients in labor would make it to other hospitals if the center were to close.
"These aren't widgets. These are people. This is health care," Mazzarella said Friday. "Every day, it becomes even more and more important that this maternity ward stay here, and also that we are on guard here to make sure that they don't take any more services."
"In line with regulatory processes, the Department of Public Health (DPH) has shared supplemental questions in response to our previously submitted plans to ensure regional access to labor and delivery services upon the proposed closure of HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital's inpatient maternity unit in Leominster," the hospital said in a statement. "We remain committed to continuing to engage in a transparent exchange of information as we address DPH's latest questions and to preserving equitable access to maternity care for all birthing people across North Central Massachusetts."
