As a new Bend clinic opens, another closes

This week’s opening of the St.Charles Bend South medical clinic is bittersweet to some patients of the Center for Women’s Health near the hospital on the northeast side of town.

St. Charles just announced they’re closing that clinic due to unspecified staffing-related issues.

To some, “staffing related issues” is not good enough of a reason to close the clinic, which opened last year. Patients of Saint Charles’ Center for Women’s Health in Bend want some answers.

“You know, this closing is highly upsetting to me and my family, because we do come from John Day to get immaculate healthcare because in being in John Day, a rural environment, we don’t get that,” patient Anna Reed told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday.

People have expressed concern on the station’s Facebook page about St. Charles opening a new clinic, when one is closing, but the biggest concern seems to be where one OB/GYN will practice next.

Some are saying they will not go to the Redmond Center for Women’s Health, unless Dr. John Murphy comes along.

“Dr. Murphy is an angel. He is the best doctor i have ever seen. He listens to you,” Reed said.

St. Charles officials said the Redmond center and the new south Bend clinic locations will accept the transferred patients.

Whether they’ll go to the new doctors or not is unknown, but some patients we talked to said they’re concerned they won’t be able to get in to a new doctor, in the case of an emergency.

“When I heard that he (Murphy) was basically being pushed out, it really upset me, because there’s so many patients of his that rely on him to be close or to be available to answer questions,” Reed said.

Reed lost her first child, and said she would have lost her second without the help of Dr. Murphy. Reed has been seeing Murphy since 2012, well before last year’s opening of the St. Charles clinic.

Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Goodman said, “We certainly understand why our patients are upset about our Center for Women’s Health closing in Bend. However, it is separate from our new family care clinic in southern Deschutes County, which has been in the works for about two years.”

Goodman said St. Charles also wants to make clear that the birthing center in Bend is staying open. It’s only the women’s clinic that’s closing its doors.