CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Elected officials are using words like “devastating” and “inhumane” to describe Mercy Hospital and Medical Center's owners filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
And a South Side alderwoman said they will act to preserve health care in the Bronzeville community.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she understands Trinity Health, Mercy Hospital’s owners, say they’ve lost money, but filing for bankruptcy and walking away is devastating for people in the community.
Mercy, the city's oldest hospital, announced last summer that it planned to close sometime in 2021.
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Fourth Ward Alderman Sophia King said local officials are meeting weekly hoping to find another entity to continue Mercy's mission even if it’s a scaled-down facility. She said it's better than the diagnostic center Trinity Health previously proposed.
Lightfoot seemsed to be thinking along parallel, if not the same lines. But she said it's hard for even a non-profit institution to keep going when the staff is fleeing.
Others said Trinity created its own problems. King said plans to close Mercy led staff to flee.
She said Trinity took a good hospital and ran it into the ground.
The hospital closure is on the agenda for the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board meeting on Mar. 16.