Fury and fear in small North Carolina town after only hospital for miles closes - forcing residents to drive 25 minutes to nearest emergency room if they need care

A small town in North Carolina has been left enraged and terrified after the only hospital for miles closed its doors. 

About 22,000 residents in Williamston, about an hour outside of Raleigh, have been forced to drive around 25 minutes to the nearest emergency room after Martin General Hospital shut down. 

The once nearby hospital locked its doors in August after filing for bankruptcy, citing 'financial challenges related to declining population and utilization trends.'

The 43-bed hospital that has since blocked off its parking lot and hung up a sign that reads 'If you need immediate assistance- Dial 911,' said that it attempted to get assistance from Martin County to fix their problems, but they did 'not respond' and 'forced' them to file for bankruptcy. 

Now, furious residents have lost trust in the county's elected officials and presidential candidates that are expected to visit the state soon for their campaigns. 

Martin General Hospital shut down in after filing for bankruptcy, citing 'financial challenges related to declining population and utilization trends' 

Furious residents have lost trust in the county's elected officials and presidential candidates that are expected to visit the state soon for their campaigns. Pictured: Linda Gibson (left) and Verna Perry (right) attend a Marin County Board of Commissioners meeting in April

A blue tarp is seen falling off of the former hospital's sign as duct tape tries to hold it up 

'If you´re critically ill, there's no help for you here,' resident Bobby Woolard, 73, said. 'Nobody seems to care. You got a building sitting there empty and nobody seems to care.' 

The sign at the entrance of the hospital has been covered in a blue tarp and duct tape, while a nearby hospital sign on US 17 was seen with a garbage bag dangling from it.  

Linda Gibson, a lifelong resident of Williamston, said: 'I know we all have to die, but it seems like since the hospital closed, there's a lot more people dying.' 

More than a dozen Williamston residents blamed the Martin County Board of Commissioners for failing to prevent the troubled hospital from closing. 

In April, Verna Perry, stood up in front of commissioners and explained how it took her sister 25 minutes to drive to the closest hospital only to find out she would not be able to get the treatment she needed there.

'Do you really care, commissioners?' Perry asked. 'If you cared, you would do something to get us a hospital here.' 

Former Martin General Hospital patient, Kaitlyn Paxton, was seeking treatment for her asthma at the emergency room the day it shut down.

She watched as staff wheeled patients out on stretchers and transferred them to  other hospitals. 

Since being booted out, Paxton has had a hard time finding primary care doctors and specialists to replace the ones who left after the hospital closed.

'As far as everyday doctors and appointments, from my personal experience it has been a nightmare trying to find someone,' she said.

She has gone on to use Apage Health, a federally qualified health center, which is one of a few facilities in the county still offering primary care. 

More than a thousand of these health centers across the US have received federal government funds and take patients on a sliding pay scale, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

Agape Health added Saturday hours because of an influx of new patients after Martin General closed, according to clinic CEO Dr. Michael McDuffie. Last month, Agape reopened one of the orthopedic clinics that shut down along with the hospital.

McDuffie wants to reopen Martin General next, even if just as a stand-alone emergency room.

'I know we all have to die, but it seems like since the hospital closed, there´s a lot more people dying,' Gibson said 

A garbage bag is seen hanging from the a hospital sign along US 17 in Williamston in April 

'It could mean life or death,' McDuffie said. 'They need an emergency department here so that it could at least stabilize them.'

Along with patients, healthcare workers have also struggled with the hospital's closure, as Capt. Kenny Warren of the Williamston Fire and Rescue, said that ambulances and their crews have been tied up for hours on each run. 

'A call that used to take us 20 to 30 minutes is now taking an hour to two hours, depending on where we've got to transport to,' Warren said. 

He added that although the agency is staffed with emergency medical technicians, there are not paramedics who are trained to provide more advanced care to patients in emergencies.

Warren explained that he doesn't think anyone has died as a result.

'Most of the outcomes probably would have been the same anyway,' he said.

The county, which still owns the hospital and land, is currently consulting with state officials and federal Health and Human Services agency representatives to determine whether the facility can reopen as a Rural Emergency Hospital, according to interim County Manager Ben Eisner. Gov. Roy Cooper. 

Cooper helped usher in a new state law that allows North Carolina's rural hospitals to make that transition.

The Rural Emergency Hospital program was developed by Congress, signed into law by former President Donald Trump, and fine tuned by the Biden administration.

The designation allows rural hospitals to unlock millions of federal dollars and help out Medicare payments if they stay open to provide 24/7 emergency care.

'The simple question we're trying to answer is how do we go from closed to open in a way that makes sense for the citizens of Martin County,' Eisner said.

If successful, Martin County would be the first hospital in the country to reopen its doors after closing with the new federal designation.

'It's a top priority for us, we live it every day as a community,' Paxton said about getting the hospital reopened.

Even though she's hopeful, Paxton said that she doesn't believe it's important to politicians.   

'I do not think it is a top priority for any of them at all - president, senators - any of them,' Paxton said.

Across the country, emergency room wait times have ballooned, with the average visit taking nearly three hours last year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

In April, Perry, stood up in front of commissioners and explained how it took her sister 25 minutes to drive to the closest hospital only to find out she would not be able to get the treatment she needed there

Capt. Kenny Warren of the Williamston Fire and Rescue, said that ambulances and their crews have been tied up for hours on each run since the hospital closed 

Dr. Michael McDuffie, CEO Agape Health Services of Eastern North Carolina, plans to re-open Martin General, even just as a stand-alone emergency room 

Healthcare systems have also been grappling with a worker shortage that worsened after burned-out employees emerged from the pandemic.

These problems are particularly pronounced in rural communities, where more than 68 hospitals have closed in the last decade. 

The closures slowed down during Covid, when the federal government invested billions of dollars in extra funds to hospitals. 

George Pink, the deputy director of the University of North Carolina´s Sheps Center's Rural Health Research Program, believes that with that money spent, hospital closures could tick up again.  

'If you're having a heart attack, if you're having a stroke, if you're giving birth, all those are the kinds of life events where you need access to emergency care quickly and properly,' Pink said.

'Those communities that have lost their rural hospitals, they don't have that.' 

The sentiment in this eastern North Carolina county could hint at trouble for President Joe Biden, who has made health care a key part of his reelection campaign against Trump.  

Biden and Trump are fiercely competing for the state, as Martin County voted for Trump in 2020. 

'Health care is on the ballot this year, and voters will remember that when they reject Donald Trump in November,' Dory MacMillan, the Biden campaign's North Carolina communications director said.