Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley was in North Adams following on the footsteps of Governor Deval Patrick’s visit hours before Tuesday.
While Coakley says the current focus for state and federal lawmakers is restoring emergency services at North Adams Regional Hospital, the Democrat says her office will be looking into the legality of the closure. Coakley says there are regulations that require a 90-day notice.
“There aren’t particular teeth in those regulations and sometimes financial services overtake organizations,” Coakley said. “But I will say to you today our office is going to work with the board [of Northern Berkshire Healthcare] and make sure that we determine what did happen, particularly because we need to know and we want to know that because there are other community hospitals around the state and we want to make sure we avoid this for other communities.”
Parent company Northern Berkshire Healthcare gave less than three days notice that it would close its hospital this past Friday.
