Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford will be allowed to keep their labor and delivery unit closed. This comes after an agreement was reached with the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy.
Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford will be allowed to keep their labor and delivery unit closed.
This comes after an agreement was reached with the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy where the hospital will fund an independent study to see whether a stand-alone birthing center is feasible in the area.
The hospital closed the unit back in 2022 due to staffing issues and applied for an application to keep it that way which OHS denied earlier this year.
OHS commissioner Deidre Gifford said in a statement: “This agreement permits termination of labor and delivery services at the hospital, but holds Johnson Memorial Hospital accountable to the community they serve and to the state of Connecticut for maintaining access to all levels of maternal and infant healthcare.”
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Trinity Health New England, which owns the hospital, said in a statement: “We appreciate the thorough process that OHS went through to make the decision, and we remain committed to partnering with state officials to further our efforts to provide safe, high-quality care to the greater Stafford community.”
A state lawmaker wasn’t happy with the process and outcome.
“Now we're finding out that behind the scenes there was this negotiated settlement agreement that we didn't know about, public didn't know about,” Sen. Jeffrey Gordon (R-Woodstock) said.
Local
Gordon said this could have adverse effects for expectant mothers, causing them to travel farther for delivery and labor care.
“It takes a while to have to get to, say, Hartford. They're overloaded as is,” he said.
He plans on having further discussions but said this is a loss for his constituents.
“We should be doing all that we can do to keep the care local,” he said.
Within that agreement, if the study does show a birthing center is needed, Johnson Memorial Hospital is required to support it.
