Winsted Health Center to stay - for now

WINSTED — Although it is uncertain if Charlotte Hungerford’s emergency service and medical care programs will remain in Winsted forever, the Winsted Health Center is expected to begin work on a series of much-needed renovations and improvements later this month, keeping the center here for the foreseeable future.

The center, located at 115 Spencer St., recently received a $150,000 federal grant for the work. Winsted Health Center and Foundation Board Chairman John Doyle said the grant will fund “substantial repairs� on the two buildings that make up the facility — one built in 1902, and the other built in 1957.

“These funds just became available this month,� Doyle told The Journal Tuesday, adding that although the grant was approved earlier this year, it took several months for the funds to reach the foundation’s coffers.

Among the projects that will be completed as part of the renovations are the installation of a new roof, automatic doors and entrance ramps, and new stone work for the 1902 building, Doyle said.

In addition, the center’s 1957 building, which Doyle said has been “in constant need of repairs� over the last few years, will receive a new set of heat control thermostats. Doyle said during the winter months, center staff and volunteers often had to open the building’s windows to help regulate the temperature inside it.

Also, the center’s parking lot areas will be completely resurfaced.

Earlier this month, Charlotte Hungerford Hospital announced that it was looking into the possibility of moving out of the center and relocating to another site somewhere in the area.

The hospital — which also houses the offices of private doctors and therapists, a Veterans Affairs clinic and St. Francis Center for Occupational Health — is the center’s largest tenant.

The foundation was created after the Winsted Memorial Hospital closed its doors in 1996. Charlotte Hungerford has been partnered with the foundation for a decade.

At the Winsted facility, the Torrington-based hospital currently runs an emergency department daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs, as well as blood drawing, laboratory, x-ray and digital mammography services. The hospital’s four-bed Hungerford Regional Sleep Laboratory is also housed at the center.

Timothy LeBouthillier, a spokesperson for Charlotte Hungerford, said the hospital has not yet made any decisions regarding the future of its operations at the Spencer Street location, but is only exploring options to improve and expand “the scope and level of the services it provides to the people who live and work in the greater Winsted area.

“Options being considered are occupying a new local facility at one of four locations or remaining in our existing facility at the Winsted Health Center,� LeBouthillier told The Journal in an e-mail.

“CHH remains committed to continuing to provide services in the Winsted area,� he said.

Doyle said hospital staff met with the foundation’s board of directors in July to discuss the possibility that the hospital could move its services to another location.

“They’ve kept us fully informed,� he said.

On a separate track, the foundation currently is in talks with two other health-care providers about the possibility of moving to the center.

“And their services would complement those that Charlotte Hungerford offers,� Doyle said, whether the hospital was still housed in the Spencer Street location or another building in the Winsted area.

He added, however, that if the hospital did decide to leave the center, that move would be “a long, long way away.�

“It’s clearly a work in progress,� Doyle said.