Below is the text of a statement issued to the media by Plainfield City Council candidates Annie McWilliams (Citywide at-large) and Adrian Mapp (Ward 3), who were unable to attend Wednesday night's presentation on Muhlenberg by developer Drew Piscatelli at an event organized by Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green.
The people of Plainfield and the surrounding communities are dismayed and angered by the proposal of Solaris Health System to close Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center.
The impact of such a closure on Plainfield will be devastating. Not only would the critical acute-care facilities be lost to those who rely on them, over 1,100 employees will lose their jobs. Many of these will have great difficulty finding jobs to replace the ones they have had at Muhlenberg.
Our business community will also be severely impacted -- not only through the loss of doctor's offices on Park Avenue, but through the loss of business throughout the community by those shops and services which depend on Muhlenberg employees and the dollars they spend.
While Assemblyman Green is to be applauded for finally getting behind efforts to keep Muhlenberg open, we are skeptical of his proposal that it should be taken over by the City of Plainfield and run as a "doctors' mall". Whether or not the idea has merit as a business proposition, it is clear to us that it will take too long a time to put in place.
In the meantime, if Solaris has its way, Muhlenberg will be shut on June 15 as planned, and the net effect on the community will be the same as if the Assemblyman's scheme had never even seen the light of day.
We have held from Day One that closing Muhlenberg is in violation of the state's own criteria for shutting down hospitals, since Muhlenberg's presence is vital to an UNDERSERVED COMMUNITY and there is no surplus of hospital beds in the Muhlenberg market area. As we see it, the state has a moral and ethical responsibility to keep Muhlenberg open.
We believe that the Assemblyman's efforts would be better spent demanding that the State stop the closure process and give emergency funding to Solaris to tide it over until a more rational and equitable approach to managing New Jersey's hospital crisis can be arrived at.
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I think Dan is correct. I think efforts should be put toward stopping the closure and emergency funding granted while another acceptable plan is developed. While it certainly is not the total answer to all of Muhlenberg's problems I want to put forth this idea. To make the hospital more financially viable - how about adding a health and wellness/spa facility. The example for such a move is Summit Medical Group. It's new location in Berkeley Heights is a state of the art facility for the practice of medicine (including elective plastic surgery - a cash cow I would assume) and includes a spa facility. Since Plainfielders are so passionate about keeping Muhlenberg it seems reasonable to believe that they would do their utmost to use an affiliated group that could help bring in money and keep the doors open. They could go to a section of the hospital for spa services such as massage - skin care services - there could be classes for yoga, stretching, nutrition, health screenings for blood pressure, etc. Services that could bring in CASH to the hospital. At any rate - this fast-track closing just means that Muhlenberg's "problems" are going to end up at some other hospital. The people who have been going to Muhlenberg will still need medical treatment and will seek it at JFK, Robert Wood Johnson, or Overlook.
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