Residents vow to keep fighting in hospital battle

LYNN – A plan to bombard the Department of Public Health with letters of concern and the formation of a “10-Taxpayer Group” were developed during Monday’s community meeting aimed at saving Union Hospital.”This meeting is not about rolling over, backing down or walking away,” said Katerina Panagiotakis Koudanis, a local activist who called for the meeting.Koudanis, who is also looking to fill state Rep. Steven Walsh’s seat, said she held the meeting because she doesn’t like that a plan by Partners HealthCare to turn Union Hospital into a psychiatric unit is moving forward but the community is not a part of it.The more than two dozen community members from Lynn and surrounding areas, along with state Rep. Donald Wong and City Council President Daniel Cahill, made it clear they were not pleased either.Wong suggested the residents not only send letters but handwritten letters, “from the heart.”Koudanis said they will also provide pre-written letters for people to just sign and send in.Resident Lou Amico, who has attended three meetings on Partners’ plan, was skeptical. He said residents expressed their concern to Partners during a public hearing in City Council Chambers and during a second public hearing at North Shore Community College, and they were roundly ignored.”The mayor’s not making a difference, he’s not making a difference, he’s not making a difference,” Amico said, pointing to first Cahill then Wong. “I’m here, I’m with you, but I don’t know what we can do.”Cahill told the group in order to have a voice it needed to file with the state to become a 10-taxpayer group. Partners is tentatively scheduled to file its Determination of Need with the state, which officially starts the ball rolling in its quest to close Union as a full-service hospital, at the end of the month. By forming a 10-taxpayer group, residents will then have a right to participate in the DON process, explained resident Mike Toomey. “It will be important to have neighborhood groups at the table,” Cahill said.Toomey said he thinks they need to drive home the point that Union provides an essential service to the area and that the neighborhood is inappropriate for housing a psychiatric hospital. Located in a densely populated residential neighborhood, there is also a nursery school across the street and two elementary schools near Union.”Lynn will be the only city in the commonwealth with a population over 60,000 without a hospital,” he said. “This is not just a city of Lynn issue.”Calvin Anderson suggested the group offer Partners an alternative plan rather than simply demand they stop their plan. Gardy Jean-Francois put Cahill and Wong on the spot asking why they couldn’t take steps to stop the action.”I think the salient point we’re missing is Partners is a private entity,” said Swampscott resident Susan Raiche. “They can do whatever they want.”Raiche said she thought storming DPH with letters in a systematic way would make the biggest impact.”Unless we make noise to DPH they will say, ?no complaints, we might as well approve this,'” she said.Koudanis urged those in attendance to reach out to friends and family and blanket their neighborhoods with fliers asking residents to voice their concerns to the governor and the attorney general. They can also sign a virtual petition at tinyurl.com/SaveUnionHospital, she said.”If we let the hospital go, no more politicians will be able to say they were born and raised in Lynn because no one will be born in Lynn anymore,” Jean-Francois said.Peter Frangipane told the little group to have faith.”You’ve got to have hope and if you get behind (Koudanis) and give her some support, she’ll get you where you want to go,” he said.The 10-taxpayer group will meet Tuesday, April 22 at City Hall at 6 p.m., and all concerned residents are welcome to attend.