MELROSE PARK (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Although Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park closed its doors to patients today, leaders from the surrounding communities promise the legal fight to keep the hospital open is far from over.
State Representative Emmanuel Chris Welch represents part of Melrose Park was dismyed with the closing and called Pipeline Health, the company that owns Westlake, guilty of disrespecting the patient community's needs.
He believes Pipeline Health was in contempt when they promised to keep the hospital open for two years after they bought Westlake.
"They had decided to close the hospital in December 2018," Welch said, which was earlier than what they told patients.
Parrish Lomax works as a phone operator at Westlake Hospital, and said he’s more concerned about what the closing will mean for patients than for his own future.
Westlake was allowed to close its doors to patients after a Cook County judge today delayed until next week a ruling on whether Westlake’s owners were in contempt for seeking to close the hospital after earlier promising to keep it open.
A spokesperson for Pipeline Health declined comment.