Union of voices sounds off against Partners

LYNN – Union Hospital’s services will be reduced if Partners HealthCare System expands, according to letters sent by elected officials and residents to a judge considering Partners’ claim that its growth would provide care otherwise unavailable to many patients.Superior Court Judge Janet L. Sanders could sign off in November on a settlement between the state attorney general’s office and Partners allowing the company to acquire Hallmark Health Corporation.The settlement dictates how Partners could expand and set its prices for up to 10 years along with additional controls. Sanders’ review put on hold plans announced by Partners last November to expand surgical care at Salem Hospital and shift psychiatric care services to Union Hospital.”Despite the delay, we are confident that our project is the right thing to do for our communities and that we will move forward to realize our vision for a healthier North Shore,” North Shore Medical Center spokeswoman Laura Fleming said.But leaders of two Lynn groups formed in the last year to oppose Partners’ plans have asked Sanders to consider the settlement’s potential negative effect on Lynn’s only hospital. Union Hospital Advocates leader Aikaterina Panagiotakis Koudanis said Partners’ interest in expanding must be weighed against “anti-competitive behavior.”State Sen. Thomas M. McGee and state Rep. Robert Fennell put their criticisms more bluntly in a letter to the attorney general’s antitrust division included in Sanders’ review list.”Should Partners’ plan move forward, the City of Lynn with a population of over 90,000 people will lose its only full service hospital. We are opposed to any proposal that eliminates or minimizes medical care in our City’s only hospital,” the legislators wrote.But Lynn Community Health Center Director Lori Berry offered a different view.”While it is very difficult to see hospital medical services leave Lynn, we believe that the significant investments proposed by Partners in community-based primary care, behavioral health and substance abuse services … will be positive steps toward meeting many of the unmet health needs of Lynn residents,” Berry wrote in a letter to AG Martha Coakley.Acquiring Hallmark will help Partners care for more patients, a Partners executive wrote in a letter to Coakley.Partners “provides enormous amounts of reduced price and free care to some of the region’s most vulnerable populations,” wrote Partners Continuing Care Board of Trustees Chairman Scott Schoen.Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger questioned if emergency services offered now at Union Hospital will be matched at other hospitals “…should the Emergency Department eventually close?”Allowing Partners to grow strips Union Hospital of “acute care inpatient beds” and leaves Lynn without a full-service hospital, Ward 1 City Councilor Wayne Lozzi warned in a letter to Sanders. He claimed a trip to Salem Hospital will take ill Lynn residents at least 10 minutes, possibly endangering lives.”I respectfully request that the Court deny the Consent decree at this time,” Lozzi wrote.