Nurses at Tobey Hospital and St. Luke’s, along with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, say that Southcoast Health’s decision to close the maternity unit at Tobey Hospital at the end of 2019 will make it harder for patients to access safe, quality care.

The closure of the maternity unit at Tobey follows the closure of the maternity unit at Morton Hospital in Taunton. Nurses at St. Luke’s report that they have been struggling to care for the patients who would previously have gone to Morton.

“Southcoast’s plan to close maternity services in Wareham will negatively impact hundreds of families who rely on local care,” said Sharon Miksch, a nurse at Tobey Hospital and chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee. “The ability of patients throughout the region to access safe, quality maternity care has already been devastated by the closure at Morton Hospital. Southcoast’s proposal will make it even harder for patients to receive the care they deserve. This will disrupt the lives of expectant mothers, their babies and their loved ones.”

Currently, St. Luke’s sees about 1,500 births a year. Tobey sees an average of 375 a year, which would significantly increase the burden on St. Luke’s nurses.

“The patient census in our FCU has been spiking over the last few months, making it very difficult to provide the kind of care our nurses pride ourselves on and that our families deserve,” said Deb Falk, a nurse in the emergency department at St. Luke’s Hospital and co-chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee. “We have brought up these concerns to Southcoast management during contract negotiations and they have yet to be addressed. Closing maternity at Tobey and sending additional patients to St. Luke’s will exacerbate this problem, making it even harder to uphold our promise of safe, high-quality patient care.”

There will be an opportunity for the public to voice opposition or support to the change, as Southcoast will submit notice to the Department of Public Health of their intent to shut the ward. Following that, the Department will schedule a public hearing.

The Nurses Association, in a press release, stated that the trend across the state of closing local hospital services in favor of consolidation is a hardship for patients, but is particularly hard on poor patients.