Doctors are being evicted from a building on the campus of the shuttered Carney Hospital, where they’ve continued to care for patients even as other providers left the premises.
The medical practices at the Seton Medical Building, which include a range of specialties, were given 90 days to vacate the building. It’s the latest hit to medical services in a neighborhood still reeling from the closure of Carney Hospital last August, following the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care.
“My stomach’s turning right now, I mean, even to talk about it, because I just can’t believe they’ve done this to the Carney to now the Seton Medical practices,” said Dr. John Ferrante, an internal medicine an primary care specialist who has been practicing in the building for 28 years. “It’s just crazy. I mean, it’s unconscionable, because Dorchester is hurting and we need help.”
A spokesperson for Boston Public Health Commission says they are aware the eviction notice, and that the issue will be discussed in the next meeting of the working group assigned by Gov. Maura Healey to figure out what to do with Carney Hospital. The working group is expected to make its recommendations in March.
“It would be one thing if it was another health care entity going in there,” Ferrante said. “But we weren’t told anything. It was just like, ‘No, you’re all out. Get out.’”
The Seton building was sold by Steward’s real estate company in September to a company called Silver Carney Dorchester LLC. A representative from that company did not immediately respond to a call from GBH News.
Ferrante first came to the building when he joined the practice of his father, who had been a doctor at Carney Hospital for about 40 years, he said. Seeing the hospital close was a shock.
“And now, unfortunately, we have a group of dedicated providers up at the Seton Medical Building who are thoroughly dedicated to the community and have made it their point to stay there with the hopes that the governor will open up the hospital at some point or in some way,” Ferrante said. “And we stuck firm. … It’s not just me. There’s about 15 other dedicated different providers of different backgrounds and employed by different services.”
Specialties in the building include cardiology, otolaryngology, sleep medicine, neurology and others.
“The implications of this are really bad because they potentially are going to hurt thousands of people,” Ferrante said. “None of us has a place to just turn to and just plug ourselves in, locally. There is no open spaces that are readily available that providers can just jump into. I mean, it’s going to take some time to look around the community to find adequate space.”
