East Point city councilmember pitches hospital authority to bring emergency room back to south Fulton County
In April, Wellstar announced Atlanta Medical Center South would be converted into an urgent care and rehabilitation clinic, leaving residents across much of metro Atlanta’s southside without an emergency room.
Since then, that East Point-based clinic is now expected to fully close while another AMC location in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood shuttered at the start of the month.
But one East Point city councilmember says he has a plan that could bring a hospital back to south Fulton County by creating a hospital authority among southside municipalities.
On this edition of “Closer Look,” Councilman Joshua Butler IV shares the details of his plan ahead of a Nov. 9 town hall on the issue at East Point City Hall. Under state law, Butler says East Point could work with neighboring cities to form a hospital authority, seek funding and hire a hospital management company.
“There are multiple business models in how we can make this successful,” Butler said, pointing to how Fulton County has worked with both Grady and Northside hospitals.
“I know that we have the City of South Fulton on board, almost unanimous … My plan is to start with the hospital authority with East Point and South Fulton,” Butler said, before expanding to include College Park, Hapeville and other cities even further southwest.
“None of these people are represented with a hospital, and we need to have that.”
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