BELHAVEN, N.C. (AP) — Vidant Health is opening a 24-hour clinic in Belhaven, where it closed a hospital in 2014.
The Daily Reflector of Greenville reports (http://bit.ly/28Ip2y4) the clinic opening Monday brings together three medical practices and a 24-hour medical clinic at one location.
Vidant closed Pungo Hospital in Belhaven, in part because North Carolina lawmakers refused federal funding to expand Medicaid that would pay bills of poor patients. Vidant CEO Dr. David Herman said the hospital had provided more than $2 million in unpaid health care since 2011, when Vidant took it over.
Belhaven residents protested and Mayor Adam O’Neal went to Washington to complain.
The new clinic does not have the same emergency services that Pungo offered. The nearest emergency room is in Washington (North Carolina), about 30 minutes away by car.
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Information from: The Daily Reflector, http://www.reflector.com