DELAWARE — OhioHealth’s planned closure of the inpatient maternity unit at Grady Memorial Hospital has caught the attention of Ohio’s Democratic candidate for governor, Dr. Amy Acton.
In front of dozens of supporters, nurses, former hospital employees, patients, elected officials and community members, Acton delivered a speech on Thursday outside Second Baptist Church, 55 Ross St., that highlighted her plans for healthcare reform.
“I can say with absolute certainty, we have a healthcare crisis on our hands; in this state and in this country,” Acton said.
OhioHealth announced the planned closure of Grady’s maternity unit on June 10, which would effectively end hospital births in Delaware County.
Right as Acton took the podium, one attendee shouted, “This is not a political rally,” saying the event should have been focused more on the babies who won’t be born at Grady.
Acton said Delaware County is one of the fastest-growing areas in Ohio, but the available healthcare does not reflect that.
“[Delaware County] has grown by 30% in the last 20 years. But now, it has the only inpatient maternity ward,” Acton said. “It is losing that at the only hospital in all of Delaware, and it’s shutting down.”
Before Acton’s speech and subsequent press conference, she held a roundtable event with nurses, mothers and city officials inside the church. She said attendees discussed their challenges with the cost of living in Ohio, and the cost of healthcare.
Grady losing its maternity unit won’t make any of those challenges any easier.
“It will create another healthcare desert here, where Ohioans do not have safe and local access to childbirth and maternity care,” Acton said.
“Mothers and families in Delaware are now already forced to go over 30 minutes, and in talking to the surrounding counties, Morrow County was already going 30 to 35 minutes to get to Delaware. And now, we’ll have to add on 30 more minutes to get to hospitals outside of here.”
Not just Delaware
Acton continued by saying that OhioHealth isn’t the only healthcare provider making big changes or closures at hospitals, and that “Delaware County is not an exception.”
“We have 11 rural hospitals right now on the verge of collapse, one urban hospital in Cleveland,” she said. “We have clinics at the risk of closure.”
She also said that maternal mortality has already been an issue in Ohio.
“We have a higher-than-average maternal mortality rate at 25 deaths per 100,000 live births,” Acton said. “The infant mortality rate for black babies is twice that of white babies.
“It was already a crisis in Ohio. This is not a drill. I can’t say enough that all of us, all of us pay when we don’t take care of one another.”
Role of Attorney General
On June 22, Delaware City Council unanimously approved an emergency resolution asking OhioHealth to halt the closure of Grady Memorial’s maternity unit.
The resolution also called on the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to enforce a 2005 affiliation agreement that identifies obstetrics as a core service at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Acton was asked whether she’d contact Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson about stepping in to possibly stop the closure at Grady.
“I do know Andy Wilson well, and I’m sure knowing him being a dad and a parent, I’m sure he will be looking at this issue, like all of us should be,” Acton said.
Delaware Source asked Acton, “What is being oversimplified about this Grady Memorial Hospital controversy? What should OhioHealth do next?”
“I’ve worked with all our healthcare systems in one way or another, and I don’t want to say that this is a problem of one healthcare system,” Acton responded. “This is a systemic issue that we’re facing here, and we have hospital closures everywhere in the state.
“I want to work alongside everyone impacted by this,” she said. “I want to work alongside communities. I want to work alongside the nurses you saw here, being advocates for their patients. I want everyone to come to the table, including healthcare systems.
“We owe it to the people of Ohio to work together to get this right.”
