carney hospital

For residents in Boston and surrounding communities, 2024 saw heightened discussions about the closure of health care facilities and the elimination of health care resources, highlighting gaps that already existed in lower-income areas and communities of color.

Gathered at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 17 training center in Dorchester, health care workers and community members voiced their concerns about the abrupt closure of Carney Hospital and offered solutions for what could come next for the shuttered facility during a neighborhood listening session last Thursday.

When the announcement came that Dorchester’s Carney Hospital was set to close on an expedited, 36-day timeline, community members expressed concerns that the loss of the neighborhood’s only hospital would increase the burden on surrounding health organizations and increase the time it takes for patients to access care.

The closure of Carney Hospital leaves significant gaps in the health services available in Dorchester, Boston’s largest neighborhood and one where a majority of residents are people of color, creating an emergency and urgent care desert in the neighborhood.

For the last 46 years, I’ve been a cardiopulmonary technician at Carney Hospital in Dorchester. Every day, I test people for lung diseases like asthma or bronchitis, helping to diagnose their conditions so their physician can develop a treatment plan.

Even as officials look to shore up gaps in health care that will be left by the closure of Carney Hospital, local advocates said they worry efforts will still leave residents’ care lacking.

Five of the seven remaining hospitals owned by Steward Health Care are on their way to officially being under new ownership, according to an announcement last week by Gov. Maura Healey.

The ongoing saga of Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy proceedings has taken another turn, with a recent court filing postponing key sales hearings for several of the company’s hospitals.

Last month’s announcement from Steward Health Care that it would close Carney Hospital in Dorchester sent shockwaves through the community. The move earned rebuke and pushback from local community leaders and elected officials who said the closure could worsen existing health disparities. But for the community health centers right in the hospital’s shadow, Carney’s pending closure means bracing for the potential influx of new patients in a system that is often already at its limits.

On Monday, July 29 elected officials, Dorchester residents, hospital workers and community advocates gathered outside of Carney Hospital to express concerns over Steward Health Care’s recently announced closure of the hospital.

Over the past few years, there has been a tremendous trend in Massachusetts and many states around the country to close needed healthcare facilities.

“I did not come here for the hospital to close,” said Stan McLaren, who in 2021 became CEO of Carney Hospital in Dorchester. “I haven’t heard anything from corporate about plans to close Carney.”