Rep. McNally Issues Statement on Regional Hospital Closures

COLUMBUS – State Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) today issued the following statement prior to Thursday’s 7 p.m. candlelight vigil in support of hospital workers at Steward Health Care’s Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, whose closure alongside six satellite facilities is set for September 19th:

“Although Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital are outside the lines of my district, growing up in and being a part of the Mahoning Valley binds us as a community and creates an identity we share. My heart aches for the loss of these hospitals. It’s terrible.

It’s terrible that Steward Health Care is closing these facilities just six years after closing Northside Regional Medical Center. It’s terrible to lose these jobs, especially union jobs, and it’s terrible that accessible healthcare is getting even further out of reach for our families, friends, and neighbors.

If you’ve ever had to wait, scared and suffering, in an emergency room for hours or weren’t able to quickly get a hospital bed in a medical crisis, then you know our pain. That pain just got worse. It isn’t new, though. The state of Ohio has long known of our infant mortality rates and life expectancy here in Mahoning Valley. The state is not doing enough.

This is another bitter pill to swallow after getting so many federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan, dollars meant for economic and community revitalization, and watching them sail down the river instead of addressing the very real and very serious concerns of people in this state. But this is the way Ohio is trending: closer and closer to everyone fending for themselves and further into despair. Instead, we should be banding together to help our neighbors in need and solve the problems people expect us to.

These employees and patients deserved better.”