- Neighbors could be impacted by the moving of the Neighborhood Medical Center in Southwest Tallahassee.
- The state department of health informed Neighborhood Medical Center that it won't be renewing the lease and they must move by June 30.
- Watch the video above to hear from neighbors and the CEO of Neighborhood Medical Center talk about the impacts they will face from the future move.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
“It’s disappointing… it’s disappointing.”
Lynn Jackson has lived in Southwest Tallahassee for 20 years… She’s just a block away from the Neighborhood Medical Center…
She tells me what neighbors think about the new changes coming to Southwest Tallahassee…
“Most of the people that’s in the neighborhood don’t even know… they don’t even know what’s going on…”
Those changes are the medical center shutting down their Orange Avenue location and moving to South Monroe Street…
Forcing many community members who don’t have cars to walk one mile to receive care…
“A lot of patients walk to us… they catch the bus. All our locations are on bus routes, so it’s important for us to accessible to the people who need us the most…”
That was CEO of the Neighborhood Medical Center, Jeanne Freeman. I asked her if she thinks the move puts neighbors in the community at a disadvantage…
She tells me…
What if you’re on a cane, what if you’re in a wheelchair, what if you have three kids with you? … transportation, those are stresses that I don’t want to add to our patients already existing medical concerns…”
I checked the numbers… According to City data dot com… 1,398 people walk as a form of transportation in Southwest Tallahassee…
It started with this email… sent by the Florida Department of Health, stating that it won’t be renewing the lease of the building and that the medical center will have to move by June 30th…
ABC27 reached out to the Florida Department of health to about the reasoning behind the non-renewal but have not received response… As of now, it has yet to be announced what the current building will turn into…
“Right now, we’re still in “okay let’s figure this out so we don’t inconvenience our patients. If we’re closed here, how can we get them to our other locations?”
It’s question neighbors like Jackson hopes to get answered.
“The biggest thing is what are they going to do with that building? Is it going to benefit the neighborhood or not?”
