The three-campus health system first announced its plans to shutter the obstetric unit and consolidate its maternity and neonatal services at Lawrence General Hospital, which is less than two miles away, on April 1. But on June 23, administrators informed Methuen nurses that they would cease admissions to the hospital’s maternity unit in six days.
Merrimack
Posted inHealth Care
Methuen Hospital will be next in a string of maternity unit closures since 2010
This will be the 12th maternity service closure in Massachusetts – five of which have occurred in Gateway Cities – since 2010. The state technically doesn’t have any maternity care deserts – counties without hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care, and no obstetric providers. But recent losses have experts and advocates sounding the alarm.
