EAST POINT, Ga. — About 200,000 people live in south Fulton County without one hospital in the area – adding to that concern is the closure of a major urgent care center next month.
Wellstar AMC South Hospital in East Point closed its doors last year. Now, Wellstar plans to close the urgent care facility operating on the site. That has an East Point councilman taking action.
Wellstar's announcement this week to close its urgent care location in East Point blindsided many residents and the city council.
“For them not to come and let the council know is egregious because we are here, and we want to work with them to provide health care to the people of East Point," East Point Councilman Joshua B. Butler, IV said.
Butler said one of his constituent's husbands died on the way to the nearest emergency room, which is Grady Hospital. That's something the councilman hopes to prevent in the future.
“On Monday's agenda, I will propose that we do a moratorium, which prevents and blocks any rezoning of this property, that it must be maintained as a hospital," Butler said.
The Georgia Legislature already approved a bill allowing East Point and the City of South Fulton to form their own hospital authority.
“With that, we are able to bring funding so that we can solve financial problems and bring health care back to the people of East Point," Butler said.
City of South Fulton Councilwoman Carmalitha Gumbs has been working in health care for almost two decades and is a part of the proposed South County Hospital Authority.
“We have 108,000 residents here in the City of South Fulton, and it's important for us to have a hospital and access to quality health care," Gumbs said.
The City of South Fulton Council is expected to vote on whether to give the hospital authority the green light in January.
A Wellstar spokesperson sent 11Alive the following statement:
After more than a year of collaboration and partnership between Southside Medical Center and Wellstar Health System to expand preventive and primary care services to the East Point community, the partners will complete the transition of urgent care services from Wellstar East Point Health Center (EPHC) to Southside Medical Center’s East Point clinic on Jan. 12, 2024.
As part of the partnership, Wellstar is investing $5 million over five years to help increase services and expand the Southside East Point clinic’s size and capacity. Wellstar is also committed to a thoughtful process to determine the future of the AMC South site, which includes ongoing cooperation with Dr. David Williams, president and CEO of Southside Medical Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).