The Executive Council tabled a proposal Dec. 4 to create a public-private partnership and allow Dartmouth Health to run the state’s Hampstead Hospital, after councilors argued they needed more time to review the contract.

The proposal would allow Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, a subsidiary of Dartmouth Health, to take over Hampstead Hospital, and includes a lease agreement for at least seven years.

The state purchased Hampstead Hospital in 2022 with the goal of creating a dedicated mental health treatment hospital that could help eliminate the need for children to wait in emergency rooms for mental health care.

Currently, the hospital is managed by the state, and Dartmouth Health provides behavioral health services. The public-private partnership proposal is designed to allow Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital to purchase existing assets and oversee management of the hospital.

The proposal would also create a Joint Operating Committee with representatives of the state and the hospital to help oversee the hospital’s management.

But councilors said they wanted more information about how the state would ensure that the hospital was meeting the needs. And they said they wanted to hear more reassurances about oversight.

“Yes, there is a joint operating committee, but it is advisory, and they don’t have to follow that,” said Councilor Cinde Warmington, D-Concord. “So I have concerns about why we are not putting in parameters into this contract to make sure that we’re actually achieving our goals.”

Currently, Hampstead Hospital is managed by the state and Dartmouth Health provides behavioral health services. (Photo by Annmarie Timmins, New Hampshire Bulletin)

Warmington added that if the proposal had been a partnership between two private hospitals, rather than one hospital and the state, there would have been a lot more scrutiny applied, for instance through the Charitable Trusts Unit, which reviews hospital mergers. “None of that is happening here,” she said, arguing the process had been rushed to the council.

Republican Councilors Joe Kenney of Wakefield and Janet Stevens of Rye agreed. And councilors raised other concerns about the future employment opportunities for the state employees who currently work at Hampstead.

Addressing the council, Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Commissioner Morissa Henn said there were a number of enforcement mechanisms available for the state. For instance, currently, Hampstead Hospital does not need to be licensed because it is already a state facility, but under Dartmouth Health, it would be licensed.

“We, as the licensing entity, will be in there making sure it’s safe and the highest quality,” Henn said.

Henn also noted that the hospital would be subjected to state and federal laws and that the state could determine whether to renew the seven-year lease.

And Henn said the department would try to rehire or transfer any state employees who might be displaced by the Dartmouth Health takeover, and that Dartmouth Health itself may hire those employees.

With the motion tabled, Henn said the department would draft a better explanation for the council of the enforcement mechanisms in the contract. The council was scheduled to next meet on Dec. 18.

This story was originally produced by the New Hampshire Bulletin, an independent local newsroom that allows NH Business Review and other outlets to republish its reporting.