North Carolina: Closure of a hospital in rural town provokes backlash from residents against administrations

In August of last year, General Martin Hospital, located in the city of Williamston, N.C., reported that it was closing after declaring bankruptcy. Since then, the nearly 5,300 residents of this small town have had to go to other centers located dozens of miles away, such as ECU Health Beaufort Hospital, for medical treatment. This situation has led to backlash by inhabitants against the local, state and federal administrations for not being able to provide them with adequate health care.

Several of those Williamston residents were interviewed by the Associated Press, declaring their dissatisfaction with the management that the authorities are carrying out. An example of those residents consulted was Bobby Woolard, 73, who blamed the leaders directly for the situation:

Others complained about the long distances they have to travel to get emergency medical attention. This situation is causing the death toll to increase, as stated by Linda Gibson, a resident of this town: "I know we all have to die, but it seems like since the hospital closed, there’s a lot more people dying." Or Verna Perry, who said, "Do you really care, commissioners? If you cared, you would do something to get us a hospital here."

Williamston Fire and Rescue Captain Kenny Warren added to the latter argument: "A call that used to take us 20 to 30 minutes is now taking an hour to two hours, depending on where we’ve got to transport to."

Meanwhile, Biden boasts about his healthcare management

Williamston is one of many rural towns that was affected by the closure of its hospital. As in the case of General Martin Hospital, more than 100 medical centers located in these types of areas have closed their doors, and waiting times in emergency rooms have increased throughout the country. Meanwhile, administrations do nothing to avoid these closures and brag about some minor progress that they manage to implement in the health field.

Such is the case of the President Joe Biden who, amidst an electoral campaign, is focusing part of his efforts on boasting about some of the measures he has carried out throughout his first term, such as preventing the cost of insulin from rising or about his initiatives related to Medicaid. Paradoxically, despite the hospital closures, in his electoral campaign for the November elections, health care will be one of the key points of the Democratic platform, as stated by Dory MacMillan, communications director for the Biden campaign in North Carolina, in statements collected by the Associated Press.