An online petition to save the Bayonne Medical Center has collected over 1,800 signatures, with the effort prepared to go door-to-door this weekend.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We as a city are doing everything within our power to ensure Bayonne residents will continue to have direct access to an acute care facility,†Mayor Jimmy Davis said in a statement.
“We have already brought this fight to Trenton and we are making it clear we will not be silent when our safety and wellbeing are at risk. But now, I’m asking for all of Bayonne to come together to save our hospital because we are stronger together and cannot do this alone.â€
Last month, Davis announced he learned the hospital’s current operator, CarePoint Health, was looking to sell the facility.
This plan could include shutting down or utilizing the hospital for other purposes, though CarePoint has said they are “initiated a separate process seeking a strategic partner” in light of Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health purchasing their other two facilities: Christ Hospital and the Hoboken University Medical Center.
Since then, Davis, Senator Sandra Cunningham, and Assembly members Nick Chiaravalloti and Angela McKnight (all D-31) met with State Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli to express their concerns about the looming sale.
Additionally, the city council gave initial approval to create a Municipal Hospital Authority, which could allow the city to temporarily take control of Bayonne Medical Center’s state charter in the event that a buyer for the facility cannot immediately be found.
