Should emergency services stay or go?

WINSTED — Is Charlotte Hungerford Hospital’s plan to move emergency services out of the Winsted Health Center and into a new facility in Barkhamsted a good thing for the greater Winsted community? Depending upon who you ask, you’ll get very different answers, as evidenced in two letters to The Winsted Journal this week. (See Health Center debate letters, page A6).Among the proponents of the plan to relocate Hungerford Emergency Services to a proposed location near Mallory Brook Plaza is the emergency room’s head physician, Dr. Greg Grinspan, who has worked at the Winsted Health Center since it opened in 1997.Grinspan says in his letter to the editor that Winsted-area residents should be happy to have local emergency services moved to a new, state-of-the-art facility and that he expects that “medical care delivery will continue to be something of which all of us, the patients and the providers, can be proud.”On the con side of the issue is Community Lawyer Charlene LaVoie, who represents the Winsted Health Center Foundation (WHCF) and its board of trustees, who are hoping to keep emergency services in Winsted. The WHCF is the landlord at the Winsted Health Center on Spencer Street and has proposed a plan to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital that includes redeveloping the current facility and expanding services there.In her letter, LaVoie contends that the proposed move to Barkhamsted is wrought with complications and that a for-profit facility stands the chance of losing money and closing down, meaning emergency services in this area would be eliminated.“This will be yet another loss for Winsted and the surrounding towns,” LaVoie writes.Winsted area residents on both sides of the issue are eager to see what happens at a Feb. 6 town meeting in Barkhamsted, in which residents of that town will be asked to approve or reject a seven-year tax abatement plan that has been negotiated with developer Allan Borghesi of Borghesi Engineering. Additional details regarding planning and zoning, along with water and sewer services, will have to be worked out if the plan is to come to fruition.After failing to follow through on an announced move in 2010, Charlotte Hungerford Hospital announced again last November that it plans to move its emergency services out of the Winsted Health Center to Barkhamsted. This followed failed negotiations with the WHCF in attempting to produce a mutually acceptable plan to remain on Spencer Street. “It was concluded that the age, site limitations and current condition of our leased space at the Winsted Health Center did not present a cost-effective alternative to the option of a new building,” the hospital announced in a statement.The Winchester Board of Selectmen reacted in December of 2012 by sending a letter from the town to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital expressing disappointment with the decision.If Charlotte Hungerford Hospital’s plan for a new emergency services center gains all necessary approvals, the proposed facility would be expected to open in 2014.