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BOSTON – Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday that the state will “seize control” of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton by using eminent domain, and her administration has deals in place to save four other Steward Health Care hospitals in Massachusetts from closure.

“We’re closing the book on Steward, once and for all, in Massachusetts,” Healey said in a news conference. “In doing so, we are protecting access to care in those communities and preserving jobs, jobs of thousands of hard-working women and men who work at these hospitals.”

Deals have been reached “in principle” to give Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Morton Hospital in Taunton and Holy Family hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen to new owners. But Healey said the private equity firms managing Steward’s bankruptcy are not acting in the best interests of Massachusetts residents when it comes to a deal for St. Elizabeth’s. Steward declared bankruptcy in May and said it would put all its U.S. hospitals up for sale.

planned closures of Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer that Steward announced last month after no qualifying bids were made.

State and local health officials told Carney employees Tuesday that there are no plans to take over the facility using eminent domain. Healey said her administration is focused on getting workers there new jobs and transferring patients to new hospitals.

“It’s an incredibly upsetting reality,” Healey said about those hospitals’ impending closure. “Know that our administration will continue to work with those communities to do the best we can in bringing the urgency to safely transitioning care and supporting our workers.”

Steward’s eighth hospital in Massachusetts, Norwood Hospital, has been closed since it was flooded by heavy rain in June 2020. 

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