Preserving Access to Healthcare After Steward

We the undersigned hereby join a coalition of residents, healthcare workers, community, labor and faith-based organizations served by hospitals currently owned by Steward Healthcare who are committed to ensuring the patients and families long-served by these institutions will continue to have access to the care and services they provide for generations to come.

More than 200,000 residents from the Merrimack Valley to the South Coast are served by nine hospitals currently owned by Steward Healthcare including: St. Elizabeth's in Brighton, Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill Hospital in Haverhill, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Norwood Hospital in Norwood, and St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River.

These facilities have provided a health care safety net to our communities, most for over a century, delivering desperately needed care to vulnerable patients and families, including low-income residents and communities of color who already face inequities within our healthcare system. These hospitals are among the largest employers in our communities, with more than 16,000 workers and caregivers, who not only safeguard care, but also contribute to the economic health of our cities and towns.

The loss of any of these facilities will deliver a devastating blow to the entire health care infrastructure in the Commonwealth, particularly to some of the most vulnerable and marginalized patients and families. Patients will be subjected to dangerous delays in care, be forced to travel longer distances for care, and for many, to go without care altogether. 

We commend the strong leadership of Massachusetts' elected leaders in supporting a resolution to this ongoing crisis.  While we all share outrage at this crisis, the critical task now is for all stakeholders to come together to secure new ownership of the Steward facilities and to create appropriate processes and oversight to ensure a safer, more equitable not-for-profit healthcare system that centers patients. Failure in this endeavor is not an option that any of us should accept or tolerate.  The health of our residents is not a commodity to be traded; it is a precious resource that we all share a responsibility to protect for the future of our communities.

If you are signing the petition on behalf of an organization, please fill out the "Organization" field below and email your organization's logo to Darrin Howell at darrin.howell@1199.org.