LACKAWANNA, N.Y. — Catholic Health is making consolidations which will see its Lackawanna location at 227 Ridge Road close on Feb. 18, with services and staff relocating to Mercy Comprehensive Care Center at 397 Louisiana St. in Buffalo.

According to First Ward City Council Member Amira Muflahi, patients were only given two weeks’ notice.

What You Need To Know

  • Catholic Health is relocating services and staff from OLV Family Care Center to the Mercy Comprehensive Care Center on Feb. 18

  • Some patients at OLV Family Care Center say they were only given two weeks’ notice

  • Residents and local councilmembers are concerned about patients who will not be able to get to the Louisiana Street location in Buffalo, which is 5.5 miles from the Ridge Road location in Lackawanna

  • Catholic Health says the consolidation helps solve financial and staffing issues while providing patients with expanded services

“The community is honestly outraged,” Muflahi said. “And they’re upset because their doctors that they’ve had for years are relocating and some of the patients can’t commute to the new location. Not only that, but they were never informed until the petition was created online. That brought awareness to the patients. That’s when they realized it was happening; otherwise, it was going on without a hitch."

Muflahi created a petition on change.org that garnered over 800 signatures.

For some community members, the Ridge Road location is their only option for care.

“In city limits, there aren’t any other than this one here," Muflahi said. "There are other places that do private practice, however, somewhere where they can bring their kids and women seeking preventative OB-GYN treatment, there is nothing else other than this site.”

MCCC is 5.5 miles away from the Ridge Road location, and some patients like former Lackawanna Councilmember Andrea Haxton don't plan on going to this location for care. For some others, like the elderly, those with certain physical limitations, and those who rely on public transportation, the commute is not an option at all, especially amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“There [are] a lot of elderly people, a lot of people that just are going to be stuck, and maybe they won’t go to the doctor and with COVID being rampant still, it’s really an extra inconvenience,” Haxton said.

Catholic Health mailed out letters notifying patients of the changes dated Feb. 9, but both Muflahi and Haxton said they didn’t receive the letters until Feb. 12. Catholic Health said in a statement that the letters were supposed to be mailed to patients before the organization put out its press release on Feb. 9, the same day the letters to patients were dated, but mailing was delayed.

Some Lackawanna residents feel the CWA strikes last year proved that both patients and staff are not prioritized by Catholic Health, and that this consolidation plan is in conflict with Catholic Health’s core values, especially “community.”

“This is not showing you care about the community in any way and it’s just not fair to Lackawanna and its citizens, and many other people use this facility, too,” Haxton said.

Despite challenges for certain patients, Catholic Health says the consolidation will not only help solve financial and staffing issues, but will also provide expanded services to patients. 

“Our top priority is to make this a seamless transition for our patients as we welcome them to the Mercy Comprehensive Care Center,” president of physician enterprise for Catholic Health Laurie Merletti said in a statement. “Equally important, we want to ensure the continuation of high quality primary care, specialty care, and diagnostic services for individuals and families throughout the Lackawanna community.”