Hospital License Remains Active After Formally Being closed!

It was brought to my attention today that the license for the Memorial Medical Center in South Amboy, which ceased operations around 1999, was kept "active" by former NJDHSS Commissioner Grant, Assistant Commissioner Terence French, and the Director, Rosanna Dufgalla. It remained active until approximately June of 2001.

The request to maintain the license at Muhlenberg is similar to the request that was granted for the Memorial Medical Center. It is certainly interesting that a license was allowed to remain active in one situation and not in another where the two requests seem to be so much alike.

This is an issue that the Mayor and Council will definitely be discussing with the Health Commissioner. It is our hope to keep the active status of the license so that when we do find a buyer, the license should not be treated as “new,” which would mean new regulations. That could be a major problem for any new developer potentially interested in buying and running the hospital.

Just as this concern is something that needs to be addressed, the citizens of Plainfield and its elected officials need to list any issues like this that we have with the situation at Muhlenberg and take those to the Commissioner. This needs to be done before the State and Solaris finalize any financial agreement where the state would back bonds to put Solaris in a better financial position. One of the major concerns that we have stressed from the beginning was that money from these state-backed bonds should be set aside to ensure that
Solaris meets the commitments it has made to our city.

So, if you have any concerns about these issues, please contact Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, Councilwoman Linda Carter, Councilman Rashid Burney, or Councilman Bill Reid, so that we can bring all of these concerns to the attention of the Commissioner as soon as possible.