Norwood legislator presses governor
Seeking sale of closed hospital site Files amendment as ‘SOS’ to Healey
Seeking to jump-start the stalled rebuilding of Norwood Hospital, a state representative is urging Governor Maura Healey to help clear the way for a sale of facility, which Steward Health Care closed after catastrophic flooding four years ago.
Representative John H. Rogers, a Norwood Democrat, said in an interview on Friday that he’s trying to call attention to the “huge and dangerous vacuum” in the town and other communities south of Boston created by the shutdown of the hospital’s 215 patient beds and emergency department.
“It’s an SOS to the governor,” he said, referring to the House budget amendment he filed calling on the administration to authorize the sale or lease of the hospital to
Mass General
Brigham “or any other such high-quality health care provider.”
Rogers said he spoke to several board members of
MGB, the state’s largest health network, and Edward Aldag Jr., chief executive of Medical
Properties
Trust, which owns Steward’s Massachusetts hospitals in partnership with an Australian investment fund.
“They really want Norwood” to reopen, he said. In a Facebook post on Thursday, he went further, saying Aldag and the MGB board members “love the Norwood project and want the deal done.” He declined to name the board members, but he stood by his characterization of their position.
An MGB spokesperson said the company “is not seeking to purchase Norwood Hospital.” A spokesperson for Alabama-based Medical Properties Trust didn’t return a voicemail seeking comment.
“Steward needs to make an orderly transition out of Massachusetts,” a spokesperson for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services said. “The administration will review any proposed sale or legislation that reaches the Governor’s desk.”
Norwood Hospital was forced to close its doors in June 2020 after nearly six inches of rain fell in 90 minutes, causing crippling flooding and requiring all patients to be evacuated. Hospital consultants determined the building could not be rehabbed.
Construction of a new $375 million hospital began in November 2021, but the project has been plagued by an ongoing legal standoff over insurance coverage, as well as debilitating cash crunches at Steward and Medical Properties Trust. Contractors stopped work earlier this year, saying they haven’t been paid.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers, administration officials, and other hospital networks have been preparing for the possible closing of Steward’s seven other hospitals in Massachusetts. It closed a rehabilitation hospital in Stoughton in March.
Rogers said he filed his amendment to make clear to Healey “that this Legislature authorizes this administration to get this deal done. I’m seeking her support to help hundreds of thousands of needy people.”
Rep. John H. Rogers said that he’s trying to call attention to a ‘huge and dangerous vacuum’ in the town