Over 50 community members gathered in the Columbus Park Refectory Tuesday morning, calling for the reopening of West Suburban Medical Center. Representatives from The Concerned Clergy to Save West Suburban Hospital, the Leaders Network Chicago, and the Chicago Medical Society were in attendance, as well as additional faith leaders, care providers, and residents.
West Sub’s emergency room and inpatient services have remained closed since the hospital was shuttered in late March. The community meeting fell on the 76th day of the closure, activists repeated during the meeting. Speakers said the closure risks Chicagoans’ lives and exacerbates existing health inequities.
“This is our moment to stand together. We need to save our hospital. … The closure of West Suburban is not merely a business decision, it is a public health emergency. It is a moral issue. It is a justice issue,” said Rev. Ira Acree, pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin.
According to the Chicago Health Atlas, the life expectancy in the Austin neighborhood is 73 years, while in the Loop the expectancy is 88. The hospital, which closed after a billing issue and years of unpaid debt to the state, is in Oak Park but primarily serves Austin and West Side residents and is one of the few safety-net hospitals in the area. Now, according to Bishop Dwight Gunn, most ambulances are taking people to the Community First Medical Center in Portage Park, which is 34 blocks and over four miles away from West Sub.
“When a mother suffers a stroke, when a father has a heart attack, when a child experiences seizure, when grandmother suffers an aneurysm, every second counts,” Acree said. “A five minute trip to the emergency room should not become a 20 minute ride across town. Those lost minutes can become lost lives.”
Dr. Vishnu Chundi, a former West Suburban physician, said the community deserves better care. He called on the governor, state legislators, and other elected officials to protect the hospital.
Other speakers had similar messages. “We have not heard the type of outcry that we should be hearing from our elected officials… We need to rise and raise the temperature,” Gunn said.
In early June, a local judge rejected an attempt to change hospital leadership and remove control from Manoj Prasad, CEO of Resilience Health, the company that runs West Suburban. Prasad has told the community he is working on plans to reopen the hospital as early as July. The judge said he believed there were plans in place to reopen the facility. When asked if he thought this goal was realistic, Gunn called for a change in ownership of the hospital.
“You have millionaires fighting each other. … while our community is suffering,” Gunn said. “We think that there needs to be really a change in leadership, because we don’t believe that this current leadership, this private ownership, is the method in which we should be operating a safety-net hospital, because they are simply there to make money, and they’re not there for the good of the community.”
At the end of the meeting, roughly 20 members of the clergy stood behind Gunn in support of saving West Suburban. “We need to reimagine to make sure that we are addressing all the necessary concerns for this community, and the time is not tomorrow,” he said. “The time is now.”