Health Care Access For Poor, Elderly And Minority Residents Will Be Impacted By Berkeley Hospital Closure
Berkeley’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center is not seismically safe, and there is not enough room to operate the hospital, Sutter Health officials say.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Report: Berkeley Hospital Closure Would Mean Longer ER Waits, Ambulance Rides
The planned closure of Berkeley’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center would severely restrict health care access for poor, elderly and minority East Bay residents, increase wait times for emergency care, and result in a loss of jobs, according to a new report by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development. Sutter Health, which owns Alta Bates, said in 2015 it would close the 347-bed hospital on Ashby Avenue by 2030, the year that California hospitals must comply with new seismic retrofitting standards or be decommissioned. (Ho, 12/17)