CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Senate advanced two bills Friday that would dispose of two hospitals and replace them with smaller, newer facilities.
A bill that would close Jackie Withrow Hospital at Beckley was approved with little comment. But a bill that would close Hopemont Hospital at Terra Alta in Preston County was supported by one senator representing that district and opposed by the other.
Sen. Randy Smith, R-Tucker, urged defeat of the measure to replace Hopemont with a newer 60-bed facility. He said he has had family members who worked and retired from Hopemont. He also said the state Department of Health and Human Resources has “not been completely honest with us” concerning information about Hopemont.
Hopement’s 57 patients are mostly elderly and need psychiatric care. They are the patients no one else wants, Smith said.
He said the DHHR recently spent more than $500,000 replacing the hospital roof and $700,000 on the boiler system — more than $1 million on a building lawmakers wants to replace.
The main building at Hopemont was put in service in 1956, so it is not that old, Smith said.
“I cannot turn my back on the people in this area — the people and the employees,” Smith said.
Sen. Robert Beach, D-Monongalia, also spoke in opposition to the plan.
But Sen. Dave Sypolt, R-Preston, said the existing hospital needs to be replaced. He said he has constantly heard about problems with the building, management and pay and work environment. He said he has passed those concerns along to the DHHR, but nothing has been done to improve the situation.
Sypolt said the new facility would be built before the old one is removed, ensuring continuing care for patients.
“Let’s let the system work and get West Virginia out of the business of running hospitals,” he said.
The measure passed 25-6, with one member absent. Sypolt voted for, and Smith voted against.
Also Friday, the Senate advanced the West Virginia Safer Workplaces Act.
Most of the discussion on the bill centered on employers’ ability to have employees submit to drug testing.
Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, said that as a physician, he is concerned he might prescribe patients certain drugs that would show up in a drug screening and those patients might lose their jobs. A number of people could be eliminated from the workforce for taking small doses of drugs that had been legally prescribed to them, he said.
The bill advanced on a vote of 19-13, with two senators absent.
The Senate also approved a broadband expansion act, sending it back to the House of Delegates with amendments. The bill allows, among other things, people to form cooperatives to provide broadband internet service.
On questioning, Sen. Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said cooperatives would not be limited to places that currently are unserved or underserved by broadband providers.
The Senate postponed action on a measure that would have allowed certain first responders to carry firearms.
Sen. Tom Takubo, D-Kanawha, said that as a former EMT, that he could not support the bill.
“EMS personnel have to be very, very focused on what they’re doing, and one thing they should not be doing is carrying firearms,” he said.
EMTs must concentrate on the patient in front of them, and they cannot watch their back and deal with defusing dangerous situations by using firearms, Takubo said, noting that EMTs rely on police agencies to secure scenes.
Takubo said people from several EMS agencies had asked him to oppose the bill.
Stollings said several agencies had contacted him, too, opposing the bill.
Sen. Mark Maynard, R-Wayne, supported the bill, saying it did not require EMTs to carry firearms but would allow them to.
“This is a pro-Second Amendment bill, and I urge passage of it,” Maynard said.
