Several community members are voicing their outrage over Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health's announcement Wednesday to close Good Samaritan Hospital, also in Dayton, by the end of 2018.
Three community residents spoke to WHIO-TV 7 News on behalf of the community's hundreds of residents Wednesday about the announced hospital closure. They told the television station Premier Health's decision not to consult the community in the matter is evidence residents' opinions "don't count" and didn't factor into officials' decision-making, the report states.
"If they had come to the community a year or two ago and said, 'We're planning on closing Good Samaritan Hospital and what do you guys think?' At least that would have been a good faith thing. … They could have acted like they cared. But they didn't," said 66-year-old Daria Dillard Stone, a minister at Dayton-based Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church.