To the Editor:

On Monday, September 26th, Southcoast Health razed the Tobey Homestead and on Wednesday, September 28th, they ‘announced’ the closing of Tobey’s Makepeace Center for Women and Families at the end of the year.  A coincidence of timing? 

I have to wonder the rationale behind this sudden closure, beyond the cost savings. There must have been a master plan to do so for some time, especially considering the 14 million dollar expansion to St. Luke’s Maternity Center. 

Yes, Tobey is a small community hospital with less than 500 annual births. But the key word here is ‘community.’ Southcoast is slowly, but systematically, dismantling what makes our local hospital so special to the community it serves.

I will forever be grateful to the Makepeace Family, to the incredible doctors, compassionate maternity nurses, and to the special midwifery program, for making maternity care such an integral part of Tobey and the communities they have  served since 1940. It is painful when ‘business’ decisions are made with what appears to be a disregard for how it ultimately affects patients and the medical care they receive locally.

Nancy McFadden