EAST POINT, Ga. — The East Point City Council passed a moratorium restricting what can be done with the property that used to be the Atlanta Medical Center South Hospital.
The moratorium comes one week after Wellstar announced it would close the urgent care at the facility on Jan. 12.
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Channel 2′s Michael Doudna was live near the facility Monday on WSB Tonight at 11 p.m.
The location was a hospital for years serving South Fulton County below I-20.
“It’s very important to have that,” said Barbara Cummings, a long-time East Point resident.
In 2022, WellStar replaced the hospital and emergency room at Atlanta Medical Center South with urgent care.
“Now, they are going to close everything, but the people are still here,” said Cummings.
Cummings’ concern, shared by members of the council, is that thousands of South Fulton County Residents will be miles away from a nearby emergency room.
“They just don’t care about the people in East Point, as far as I’m concerned,” Cummings said
“Imagine having a car accident south of I-20 at 5 pm on Friday. You may not make it to Grady,” said East Point Councilman Joshua Butler IV.
Around 10:50 p.m., the council passed a moratorium that would prevent almost any construction or repurposing of the property.
“The idea is we protect healthcare here in East Point by making sure that the property is not rezoned or resold for any use other than a hospital,” Butler IV said.
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The councilman said in the meeting it would take around $200 million to make the hospital able to operate.
He supports a hospital authority to go and seek money from Wall Street.
“When you have people in the community who care about the healthcare, they find solutions to problems,” said Butler IV.
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