Ayer

The independent watchdog keeping an eye on care at Steward Health Care hospitals urged the state, the company, and its lenders and creditors to take action to lessen the devastation that the looming closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer is having, and will continue have on people who live in the Central Massachusetts region.

UMass Memorial CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said he hopes to work with the state to provide some healthcare facility for the Nashoba Valley region, although no formal discussions have taken place.

Gov. Maura Healey's plan to rescue five bankrupt Steward Health Care hospitals could cost Massachusetts taxpayers $700 million by 2027, the Boston Globe reported Saturday, citing "people with direct knowledge of the bailout plan."

Slamming an "impotent charade of oversight," the state's largest nurses union renewed its call for the Healey administration to prevent the closure of Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center after regulators said both facilities provide "essential service."

Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center each provide an "essential service necessary for preserving access and health status" in their areas, public health regulators concluded this week.

"Enough is enough," Gov. Maura Healey declared Friday as she announced that all the bankrupt Steward Health Care hospitals still up for sale have new owners lined up and that the state is going to assist in the transitions with financing and, in one case, the use of its property-taking powers.

A lawyer representing Steward Health Care said in court Friday morning that the company is "close" to signing purchase agreements for at least five of its six for-sale hospital campuses in Massachusetts.

Steward Health Care said late Wednesday night that it has again postponed the sales hearing for its hospitals in Massachusetts, this time to next Thursday.

Tuesday's bankruptcy court hearing on the sale of as many as five Steward Health Care hospitals in Massachusetts has been postponed until Friday.

Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre was on vacation two weeks ago when his company revealed that it planned to close two hospitals in Massachusetts, but he didn't have a hand in the decision or any say in the timing of the announcement, a spokesperson for the embattled executive said Thursday.