Healey supports federal investigation into Steward Health Care’s de la Torre

Gov. Maura Healey supported the idea of a federal investigation into Steward Health Care Chairman Ralph de la Torre this week, while pushing to keep some of the company’s Massachusetts hospitals afloat. 

Healey’s comments came in response to reports that the embattled de la Torre was recently in France watching Olympic equestrian events at Versailles. 

“I am disgusted by Ralph de la Torre. He basically stole millions out of Steward on the backs of workers and patients and bought himself fancy yachts, mansions and now apparently lavish trips to Versailles. I hope he gets his just due and that federal investigators will come after him for his actions. Our administration is working night and day to protect jobs, protect patients, and pick up the pieces of the situation that Ralph de la Torre has put us in.” Healey said in a statement. 

Tensions continue to run high surrounding Steward, which is planning to close two Massachusetts hospitals by the end of the month. Employees and others have been rallying support for Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, but their future remains uncertain. 

After Steward declared bankruptcy earlier this year, the Dallas-based company said it would be selling off 30 hospitals nationwide. Healey said Wednesday that she was “cautiously optimistic” about the potential transfer of five Steward-run hospitals in the state, but stressed that the power is “in the hands of the lenders,” according to State House News Service. Steward operates seven hospitals on eight campuses in Massachusetts. 

Healy told SHNS that there were no qualified bids for Carney and Nashoba Valley, and that she is “focused on saving five community hospitals.” The governor pressed Steward last week to abide by a state regulation that hospital owners must give 120 days notice before any medical facility can close. The company only announced the impending closures of Carney and Nashoba Valley on July 26. But Healey has also reportedly acknowledged that there is little she can do to keep Carney and Nashoba Valley afloat. 

Boston City Council passed a resolution Wednesday urging city officials to declare a public health emergency over the closing of Carney. It received overwhelming support, and many councilors spoke at a meeting about the hospital’s importance not only to Dorchester, but what is closure could mean for the rest of the region. That resolution is nonbinding, and Mayor Michelle Wu’s office said afterwards that such a declaration would not be an effective solution. 

Town officials in Ayer also passed a similar resolution this week calling on Healey to declare a public health emergency over the closure of Nashoba Valley. 

More than 1,200 employees could lose their jobs if Carney and Nashoba Valley close.

When reached for comment by The Boston Herald, a spokesperson for de la Torre said that he was “regrettably” on a family vacation and that he “does not have the authority” to make decisions involving the closures or sales of hospitals in the bankruptcy process. 

“Despite what the press continues to say, Dr. de la Torre has been focused on managing the situation, and to the extent that the bankruptcy proceedings allow him to, keeping hospitals open and patients fully cared for,” the spokesperson told the Herald.