Posted: Jul 14, 2017 8:49 PM
By Brianne Talocka/WRDE
A crowd gathers as Bayhealth Sussex Campus celebrates its topping off ceremony. Terry Murphy, President and CEO of Bayhealth, explains that the ceremony commemorates the final steel being added to the hospital frame.
The new hospital location will be offering specialty care Southern Delawareans need. Milford Mayor Bryan Shupe explains what this hospital means for the community.
“This is something that not only Milford but Southern Delaware has not seen before. We will be able to offer care here that now our residents are leaving town or leaving the state to get. So our seniors won’t have to go to Baltimore or Philadelphia they’ll be able to stay right here in Milford. The whole peninsula for pediatric care won’t have to go upstate anymore they can come to Milford for specialty care. So we’re really transforming how health care is done in Southern Delaware,” Shupe states.
State Senator Ernie Lopez says this hospital is a great addition to Sussex County.
“With our growing population of seniors and especially with our young families moving here with beautiful children, to have another facility with such highly trained professionals, to have this beautiful and really meaningful connection with the I. Dupont and Nemours Children’s hospital and have all those specialist here working on pediatrics, this is a tremendous blessing for Sussex County. And as someone who’s going to have this hospital serve the northern part of my senate district, I know that my constituents will be well served.” Senator Lopez states.
Community members wrote messages and signed their names on three beams becoming be part of the hospital. Two of the beams will be left out for display, and the other is the key to the topping off ceremony. This beam is hoisted to the roof of the hospital with a little evergreen tree on top. Terry Murphy says the tree is added for luck.
During the ceremony Governor John Carney reminds people of health care conversations going on nationally, and states how important the new Bayhealth hospital is for citizens.
“When you think about it, listen to the discussion that’s happening, in so many communities across our nation, and in our little state of Delaware. That hospital, this hospital is the center of activity within that community,” says Governor Carney.