Saving Hopemont Hospital, again, in the upcoming legislative session is a priority for Preston County’s two delegates.
Del. Terri Sypolt (R–Preston, 52) and Del. Buck Jennings (R–Preston, 53) both said as much during a legislative kickoff event hosted by the Preston County Chamber of Commerce Thursday night.
Hopemont is a 98-bed, long-term care facility in Terra Alta run by the West Virginia Division of Health and Human Resources. According to its website, “Hopemont Hospital provides services to geriatric residents of West Virginia requiring long-term care and behavioral interventions to maximize their functioning ability and independence.”
Both delegates also had ideas on how to expand the usage of the hospital.
Sypolt suggested using Hopemont and other state hospitals to relieve some of the overcrowding in the state’s regional jails.
“Because I think a lot of times, there’s people that’s picked up and put into jail, which really could benefit more by going to a facility and getting help at a state hospital instead of being placed in a jail facility,” Sypolt said.
However, just because the hospital is a priority to her, doesn’t mean it is to every legislator – who has places in their own districts to save.
Last year, a bill would have closed Hopemont and three other hospitals, Jennings said. He said he was able to convince a person in charge the state was using bad numbers and stopped the bill from advancing.
“They have not let them increase their census. They’ve not let them increase their hiring. And they’ve done all kinds of things to make them look like these hospitals are not viable,” Jennings said. “And I don’t understand why. To me this is one thing the state is responsible for, is these people that have no place else to go, or have nobody else to take care of (them).”
Further skewing the numbers – the hospital was required to open and maintain a COVID wing even though it was never used.
Jennings said the legislature should be working on ways to improve the hospitals and finding new uses for them. He said a lot of the state’s homeless are mental patients in need of care and he didn’t see why Hopemont and other state hospitals couldn’t fill that role.
“I remember what happened when they closed Weston,” Jennings said. “Those people were put out on the street. And that was just horrible. And I don’t want to see that happen again. So that’s one of my pet peeves.”
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