{"id":8089,"date":"2021-09-23T20:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=8089"},"modified":"2021-09-27T20:18:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T20:18:10","slug":"sen-ossoff-fighting-to-reopen-hospital-in-cuthbert-georgia","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-fighting-to-reopen-hospital-in-cuthbert-georgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Fighting to Reopen Hospital in Cuthbert, Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Financial hardship forced shutdown of sole Cuthbert hospital during height of the pandemic<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff has long-championed efforts to support rural hospitals<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH: Sen. Ossoff highlighted story of Cuthbert woman at\u00a0Senate press conference this morning<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington, D.C. \u2014<\/strong> U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is fighting to help reopen the Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert, a rural hospital forced to close its doors in the middle of the pandemic due to financial strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia has lost nine rural hospitals in the last 11 years, thanks in large part to the state\u2019s refusal to expand Medicaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Sen. Ossoff called on both Secretaries to make their agencies\u2019 \u201ccomplete support\u201d available to help reopen the hospital and to work personally with him, Cuthbert Mayor Steve Whatley, and community leaders to get it done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHealth care is a basic human right, and to make that a reality for all Georgians they must have reasonable access to care,\u201d Sen. Ossoff wrote. <\/strong>\u201cI urge you to make every Federal resource swiftly available to reopen this hospital facility, including Federal funding to address the hospital\u2019s infrastructure needs. I would ask that you work personally with me, my staff, Mayor Whatley, and the Cuthbert and surrounding communities to see it through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the closure of Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center, before Sen. Ossoff was sworn into office, patients in Cuthbert now must drive over an hour away to receive life-saving medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2020, Sen. Ossoff visited<\/a> Cuthbert and pledged during his campaign to work to reopen the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff spoke<\/a> about the closure of Cuthbert\u2019s hospital at a Senate press conference today, telling the story of a woman whose brother had to be rushed to a hospital in Columbus \u2014 over an hour away \u2014 just to receive emergency medical treatment. She then had to take him there three days a week to continue his care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Sen. Ossoff secured<\/a> a commitment from a Biden Administration budget nominee to fund and support rural hospitals in Georgia, and in a Banking Committee Hearing in April, Sen. Ossoff again raised concerns<\/a> about rural hospital closures and Georgia\u2019s failure to expand Medicaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff has long-championed access to rural health care and continues to lead on efforts to expand Medicaid and health care access for all Georgians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read his letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Financial hardship forced shutdown of sole Cuthbert hospital during height of the pandemic Sen. Ossoff has long-championed efforts to support rural hospitals WATCH: Sen. Ossoff highlighted story of Cuthbert woman at\u00a0Senate press conference this morning Washington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is fighting to help reopen the Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert, a […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8089","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/8089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/8089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8133,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/8089\/revisions\/8133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}