Nashoba Valley is celebrating a groundbreaking in Groton Monday for a new emergency medical center.
A satellite of UMass Memorial Health, the facility will offer key services like scans and mental health treatment areas when it opens in early 2027. Those services were lost when Nashoba Valley Medical Center in nearby Ayer closed last year amid the Steward Health Care bankruptcy.
After the closure, Groton Fire Chief Arthur Cheeks said the region became a health care desert.
“It’s not an urgent care. It will have labs, it’ll have treatment beds within the ER ... [and] a dedicated helicopter landing pad that can transfer the more ill patients,” Cheeks said.
Katie Petrossi, who leads Ayer’s council on aging, said the closure had a real impact on local seniors — and that she looks forward to some of those services returning.
“They were very much saddened by the loss of the hospital here in town,” she said. “It’s certainly no replacement for the hospital that was in Ayer, which was something that older adults were comfortable with.”
Residents in 17 local towns went to the now-closed facility for care. It’s strained resources, officials said, and residents have had to wait longer for ambulances.
“The area struggled with the loss,” Ayer Fire Chief Tim Johnston said about last year’s closure. “I’m eager to see how things will look once the [satellite emergency facility] is up and running and see the impact on the region in terms of transport times.”
For emergencies that need a higher level of care, Cheeks said the land for the new facility is close to nearby hospitals like Lowell General and Emerson.
“It seems like we’re 20 minutes in any direction,” he said.
