Online petition pushing State taking of Norwood Hospital

A new online petition is making the rounds around Norwood and the municipalities within the catchment area of Norwood Hospital to, hopefully, help push forward the state legislation aimed at taking the Norwood Hospital building and property through eminent domain.

For those who may not know, Norwood Hospital was flooded, torn down, and then partially rebuilt since 2020. In that time, the property owner, Medical Properties Trust (MPT), took over the construction project from the imploded Stewart Health Care company and has been looking to sell the property, since around 2024.

Norwood officials have said in the past that several parties have been interested – State Rep. John Rogers said at Town Meeting on Monday that there were no fewer than eight – but those deals haven’t materialized.

Rogers and State Sen. Michael Rush introduced legislation earlier this year to take the property and the building from MPT through eminent domain. That bill is moving through the legislative process, according to Rogers, but for some, it’s not fast enough. If the bill doesn’t get a vote by the end of the session, July 31, it’s basically dead.

So former hospital CEO Michael Connors said he wanted to get involved and help move the process along.

“We’re trying to show the state and the governor that there are a lot of people counting on this,” he said. “There are 12 municipalities involved – the state defined the service area in 12 towns – and 250,000 residents, and we want the state to see there are so many people counting on them to make it happen.”

Connors said they are hoping for 1,000 per town.

“So we’re hoping for 12,000 signatures,” he said.

Connors said he’s worked in the hospital field for several nonprofit hospitals, in leadership roles in many cases, for 35 years. He said speed is critical for bringing a new hospital online, and he said MPT doesn’t seem to be interested in moving quickly.

“I was at Lahey, Brockton and Cape Cod,” he said. “I’ve bought hospitals, myself, on behalf of my organization. But that was a nonprofit situation. This is a unique situation, as the hospital is owned by a real estate investment trust, a publicly held company, and they’re not the most forthcoming people to deal with. We don’t know what numbers they’re looking for and what it’s going to take for them to be willing to sell the property on an arm’s length transaction, and we haven’t really made any traction on that end. So the next best option is eminent domain.”

Connors said the indications on the legislation for the taking are good right now, but again, speed is needed.

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“We’ve spoken indirectly to Rush and Rogers, and they think it’s going to come out of Ways and Means favorably, and then it has to get passed by the House and Senate, and then signed by the Governor,” he said. “There are a lot of steps involved for this to happen.”

He pointed out that the state knows there is a need in Norwood, as it approved the Determination of Need (DON) that Steward applied for in 2021 when it was first getting through the process of rebuilding Norwood Hospital.

“Why hasn’t the state done something before then?” he said. “They did something for St. Elizabeth’s, the state took over St. Elizabeth’s in Brighton.”

So Connors said he believes this petition would be an added push to get the bill over the finish line in the legislation. He said they’ve reached out to the Town Managers in the 12 affected towns, which, aside from Norwood, include Walpole, Dedham, Westwood, Canton, Sharon, Foxborough, Medfield, Dover, Mansfield, Norfolk and Wrentham.

To sign the petition, go to https://gvimes.link/hospetition