The following is a statement from MetroWest Medical center issued today, April 15. SOURCE is publishing it as received.
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FRAMINGHAM – MetroWest Medical Center’s announcement earlier this week that it is discontinuing its outpatient medical and radiation oncology programs does not change the hospital’s commitment to the community when it comes to cancer diagnosis and a smooth connection with treatment options.
MetroWest Medical Center will continue to offer high quality, cost effective, convenient access to important cancer screening exams typically offered at community hospitals, including mammograms and colonoscopies. It will also continue to perform oncologic procedures such as biopsies and cancer surgeries.
However, patients who need more advanced cancer care will be connected with larger, more comprehensive cancer centers in neighboring cities, including the Saint Vincent Cancer and Wellness Center in Worcester.
Contrary to the comments you may have heard, this decision was driven with the community’s best interest in mind and, despite the loss of the financial contribution of the program, it is the right thing to do to ensure better collaboration with centers of excellence in cancer treatment.
As a result of so many excellent cancer centers in close proximity to MetroWest Medical Center, the program has always been small despite the highly qualified and dedicated MetroWest oncology team. Local access to cancer screening in Framingham with a smooth pathway to larger, more comprehensive nearby programs will allow residents near MetroWest to have the best possible care.
It will provide them easy access to preventive screening and quick and accurate cancer detection locally, coupled with excellent treatment at the program of their choice. This is what we would want for our family members, and that should not be different for our community members whose cancers we diagnose.
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Going forward, MetroWest Medical Center will focus on its key clinical programs including cardiovascular medicine, general surgery, gastroenterology, emergency medicine and behavioral health. The cardiology program at MetroWest boasts excellent outcomes from its interventional cardiac catheterization lab and its highly skilled cardiologists.
The hospital also boasts a large group of gastroenterologists who provide excellent diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in the endoscopy department, and our general surgeons recently began performing more advanced robotic surgeries with a new daVinci Xi robot.
The Emergency Department in Framingham provides high quality, compassionate care to over 40,000 MetroWest residents each year, and we are proud to further serve our community with our 103-bed behavioral health hospital in Natick.
MetroWest remains committed to the community, the quality of care it provides, and looks forward to continued expansion of these core services.
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MassBay Community College 
MetroWest Medical Center