WESTFIELD- Mayor Sullivan and State Representative John Velis will co-host a forum Thursday at 6 at the Westfield Athenaeum to discuss a proposal by Baystate Health that they said would lead to the closure of in-patient mental health services in their hospitals in Greenfield, Palmer, and Westfield.
In February, Baystate Health announced that it would be opening a new Behavioral Health hospital, which the health network said will increase the patient capacity within its service area by at least 30 percent. In a press release from Baystate Health, it was said that, when the new hospital is completed and ready for patients, “the behavioral health units at Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Baystate Noble Hospital, and Baystate Wing Hospital will close.”
“At that time, Baystate Health will need to transition the care of patients and will strive to do so to the new facility. Outpatient and partial hospitalization services will continue to be provided locally in Baystate Health’s community hospitals,” the Baystate statement said.
In March, it was announced that the Holyoke City Council approved plans for Baystate Health to purchase land on which they may build the new in-patient center.
“We are pleased that the Holyoke City Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed purchase of land in Holyoke so that plans can proceed to build an inpatient behavioral health hospital. These plans support our commitment to the community and will allow the proposed joint venture to increase capacity by greater than 30% for inpatient behavioral healthcare for adults, and children/adolescents in a dedicated, state-of-the-art hospital,” said Nancy Shendell-Falik, President of Baystate Medical Center and Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations for Baystate Health.
In the press release by Baystate Health, they said that the new hospital will give better service for special populations of behavioral health patients who currently have difficulty getting to such services due to a lack of beds. To help with this venture, Baystate Health has partnered with US Health Vest, a company that they said has specialized expertise in inpatient mental health care.
“Yet, once again, Baystate is proposing to close local services and send patients and their families to the Springfield area, rather than their community hospital,” said a statement by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), “Baystate is planning this move despite evidence that patients in Westfield and surrounding communities are especially at risk for mental health and substance abuse issues.”
In the same statement, the MNA said that mental health disorders had accounted for 35 percent of discharges in Baystate Noble Hospital.
“Travel times from the outermost communities in Noble’s service area – towns like Southwick, Chester, and Granville – to the proposed site in Holyoke could be as long as forty minutes by car, and the Holyoke site is inaccessible by public transportation. From Westfield State University, it can take as long as two hours and thirteen minutes by bus to get to Holyoke,” said the MNA statement.
In their statement, Baystate Health added that the construction of a new hospital would allow them to design a new facility specifically made for behavioral health services. They said the current facilities in the local hospitals are, “aging and decentralized.”
Baystate added that it would take approximately two years for the hospital to be up and running. That would put the projected ‘grand opening’ in early-to-mid-2021.
“As plans for the future are made, the operation of the current inpatient behavioral health units will continue as usual,” said the Baystate Health statement, “Baystate Health is committed to ensuring, for staff and for patients and their families, that these units continue to operate smoothly and efficiently and will continue to deliver the same level of high quality care that the community deserves and expects.”
Dr. Tammy Bringaze, who will be a panelist on the upcoming forum, said, “We rely heavily upon the expertise of the staff in the Fowler Unit when our students are in crisis; I can’t imagine not having this resource in our community.”
Bringaze has been the Director of the Counseling Center at Westfield State for 13 years.
In Baystate Health’s strategic plan for 2017-2020, they identified substance abuse and mental health as being among the top three urgent health problems in the Greater Westfield Area. They also said that hospitalization rates for mental health disorders and substance abuse was above the state average in Westfield and West Springfield.
