When: Thursday, July 25 at 5:30 p.m.
Where: High Street in front of Franklin Medical Ctr.
Following the rally, join us at Beacon Field for a community ice cream social
Baystate Health has been systematically moving services and procedures from Franklin Medical Center to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. At a community forum in March attended by 120 Franklin County residents, person after person told their story of having to commute to Springfield for care that used to be provided at their local community hospital, Franklin Medical Center. These stories are backed by Department of Public Health and federal Medicare data. And this spring, 10 communities in Franklin County passed resolutions at their town meetings calling upon Baystate to restore and expand services for the care of Franklin County residents close to home.
Even though Baystate management has acknowledged they could be providing far more routine services and procedures at BFMC, they claim that they cannot successfully recruit and retain doctors. As a result, in early July Baystate announced layoffs at Franklin Medical Center. But in the same week, Baystate also announced it was retaining a former Disney executive as a consultant who, according to his website, specializes in “bringing the ‘science of Disney’ to health care and hospitals.”
Franklin Medical Center is not an amusement park and patients don’t need entertainment consultants. They do need doctors and nurses. And we all need the return of health care services to our hospital so that Franklin County residents are not forced to travel to Springfield for care that should be delivered right here in Greenfield.
Join nurses and health care providers, patients, elected officials and community leaders in calling on Baystate to:
SAVE HOSPITAL SERVICES, RECRUIT DOCTORS, AND RETAIN NURSES!
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