FAIRMONT, W.Va. – Marion County officials are shocked following the announcement of the closure of the Fairmont Regional Medical Center.
Alecto Healthcare Services, LLC met with the staff Tuesday with the news that the hospital will be closed.
Marion County commissioner Randy Elliott was in shock and felt bad for the workers that got the news.
“It’s happened to me before, I was laid off in my 30’s with kids, payments and no job to go to,”Elliott said,”I fell bad for them because I’ve been there before.”
For the community, Elliott says this is a devastating blow.
“We need the emergency room, I’m from the north part of the county and it’s takes 20 minutes to Fairmont,”Elliott said,”Now where do I go from there if there’s an emergency for my family-I have to go twice the distance to get to Morgantown or Clarksburg, it’s not fair, it’s not right for anyone in Marion County, 56,000 people have depended on it and now it’s not going to be there.”
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin also reacted to the announcement of the closure.
“Marion County and Fairmont are my home area. This is where I grew up. And we know that the 11th largest county and the 7th largest city in West Virginia can’t survive without a quality hospital. This is an unfortunate and painful trend across rural America. The closing of rural hospitals and clinics continues to make access to quality care harder and forces people to travel unreasonably far distances to receive the care they need. I am reaching out to every person and party involved to save the Fairmont Regional Medical Center and look forward to working with all parties to make sure that Fairmont has a hospital for the health and wellbeing of every citizen and for the economic wellbeing of the county,” said Senator Manchin.
Elliott says the closure will force first responders to make changes.
“Now they’re going to have to go all the way to Clarksburg or to Morgantown to take citizens that are sick, having a heart attack or involved in an accident,”Elliott,”I’m telling you time means lives, and someone will die because of this.”
Elliott says the Marion County population is the oldest in the state making it the most vulnerable to a tragic outcome in the event of sickness or injury.
Elliott says the hospital created a legacy of giving back to the community that will be missed.
“The Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’ve attended that for 16 consecutive years, hundreds of women attend that that seek information,”Elliott said,”Now, it’s not going to be there. There a lot of things that happened up there that will no longer be there.”