NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center will be relocating its outpatient physical therapy services.
On September 8th, the hospital's physical therapy services will be moved to Summit Healthplex on Williams Rd. in Niagara Falls.
In an exclusive statement to 7 News, the hospital said the move will:
" ...allow us to offer our patients an enhanced experience and greater access to comprehensive care..."
However, some patients and hospital employees are upset about this relocation.
Bonnie Bergeron, a physical therapy patient at the hospital, said she found out about the relocation when she went to submit papers to the physical therapy department and found a note on the door announcing the news.
"The community hasn't been told about it," Bergeron said. "If you're not a patient there right now, you don't know."
Bergeron and hospital employees are concerned about how patients will get to Summit Healthplex.
"Everything boils down to transportation," an unnamed hospital employee said. "A lot of these patients don't have transportation. They either live locally or have to catch some type of medical insurance-based transportation."
The drive from Niagara Falls Memorial to Summit Healthplex is about 12 minutes — or an over two hour walk, avoiding highways.
"A lot of people walk to the hospital because it's convenient," Bergeron said. "It's located centrally in downtown Niagara Falls. Getting to other places as you get older and with winter coming, everything is harder."
Bergeron said she is unsure where she is going to get her physical therapy services now.
"I really don't know where I'm going to go at this moment, and I need my back therapy to keep myself going and standing."
The hospital's statement to 7 News said they are working to get patients to a new location:
"We are currently in the process of scheduling all current patients at our Summit clinic, and in the event a patient prefers to move to another clinic outside of Memorial, we are helping facilitate the transfer of their information to the clinic of their choice."
The hospital has let go of four employees in the physical therapy unit in order to accommodate this relocation.
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