In January 2024, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration launched the Advancing Health Equity in Massachusetts initiative to address health disparities across the Commonwealth.
Ten geographic areas encompassing 30 communities were targeted after being found to have the greatest health inequities in relation to the two leading causes of premature death in Massachusetts. Dorchester and Ayer were among those communities.
Six months later, the administration said it could not stop their local hospitals from closing.
The news came not long after the announcement of Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy – a financial mismanagement scandal that led to the widely covered demise of one of the country’s largest for-profit hospital chains. Steward operated eight hospitals in Massachusetts, and in the summer of 2024, its executives made deals with the state to sell the facilities. But the crisis renewed calls to end private equity ownership of health care.
The Healey administration helped five of Steward’s hospitals transition to new operators, but Nashoba Valley Medical Center – located in the rural North-Central town of Ayer – and Carney Hospital – located in Dorchester, Boston’s largest neighborhood – were left to close, leaving many to question why the state couldn’t have done more. (Steward’s eighth facility, Norwood Hospital, has been closed since it flooded in 2020.)
Just over one year later, those regions are grappling with strained EMS services, diminished access to care, and trust that has been broken. Local leaders, hospital staff, and residents say they are a testament to the devastation that lingers after communities lose their critical infrastructure.
“If you talk to most people out here, they feel abandoned, let down, hurt,” Ayer Town Manager Robert Pontbriand said. “There was a failure of leadership and commitment to this region, and people are hurting on all levels. They have very long memories.”
More Context
- Steward to close hospitals in Dorchester, Ayer (July 2024)
- Healey insists she cannot prevent hospital closures (August 2024)
- Each Steward hospital in Mass. has a bidder, Healey says (July 2024)
Published by MassINC
