Almost a year after a medical center in the Nashoba Valley closed its doors, the first steps for the construction of a new emergency center was held in Groton on Monday.
Gov. Maura Healey, along with Rep. Lori Trahan, D-3rd District, Sen. John Cronin, D-Worcester and Middlesex, staff from UMass Memorial Health and many fire chiefs representing the Nashoba Valley communities, attended the groundbreaking Monday for a satellite emergency center that will be built in Groton and operated by UMass Memorial Health.
The emergency center, which will provide emergency services, imaging, lab services, observation beds and emergency consultative services, seeks to replace the Nashoba Valley Medical Center, which closed last summer. The site of the center is located at 490 Main St. in Groton. The site is currently an empty field but the center is expected to be fully constructed by early 2027, according to UMass Memorial Health President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson.
A rendering of the emergency center was revealed at the event.
“Today, we recommit to healthcare in this region and across our state,” Healey said to a crowd of people at the event. “There’s nothing more precious than making sure we have access to care in the most vulnerable moments.
What happened to the Nashoba Valley Medical Center?
The Nashoba Valley region is an area of North Central Massachusetts with communities including Ayer, Stow, Lancaster and Groton.
The Nashoba Valley Medical Center, which was located in Ayer, closed last summer. No one bought the hospital after its owner, the Dallas-based Steward Health Care, filed for bankruptcy in May 2024.
As a result of the closure, emergency medical services (EMS) provided by the Nashoba Valley fire departments faced strains, as travel times to hospitals in Fitchburg and Lowell were farther away from Ayer, according to Groton Fire Chief Arthur Cheeks and Littleton Fire Chief Steele McCurdy.
“One of the biggest things (we) try to figure out is, where are we going to go now?” Cheeks told MassLive. “Where are we going to transport new individuals now?”
McCurdy told MassLive that the state is currently facing a shortage among EMS workers. Because of this shortage, fire departments and EMS officials can only afford to spare so many workers to help transport people to hospitals.
“We can’t just make them out of the blue,” McCurdy said.
During the groundbreaking, Healey and Trahan attacked Steward and its former CEO, Ralph de la Torre, accusing him of prioritizing a profit over providing healthcare for people.
Healey said that the actions of Steward were shameful, despicable, and amounted to betrayal.
“That betrayal though, we refused to let be the end of the story,” Healey said.
“Today, we are sending a clear message,” Trahan told the crowd. “You cannot break our community. We will fight back and we will rebuild.”
What will happen in the meantime?
While the emergency center is being built, a supplemental budget with $5 million for Nashoba Valley EMS services was approved by Healey. Dickson told MassLive that the funding from the government will help bolster EMS services in the area while residents await the new center. Dickson acknowledged that the period before the center’s completion is “vulnerable” for patients.
“So everybody’s kind of pitching in and trying to come up with a plan but it’s not ideal until the facility opens,” Dickson said. “That’s why we’re going to get it open as soon as possible.”
Nevertheless, the fire chiefs expressed gratitude for the funding, saying that every little bit helps.
“That should help bolster services,” said McCurdy. “At least for a period of time.”