To the editor:

Let’s clear the air. Unfounded allegations, rumors and untruths have circulated over the past two and a half years regarding the old Pungo Hospital in Belhaven. These allegations have been reported in the press and have been argued in three different levels of our legal system — and each time, the courts ruled in Pantego Creek, LLC’s favor.

Pantego Creek, LLC is a non-profit, collective membership of 92 members in the local Belhaven community; our members owned and operated Pungo District Hospital from 1948 until 2011; we therefore know what it takes to successfully operate a hospital in rural eastern North Carolina. After Vidant acquired Pungo Hospital in 2011, our mission became to help ensure healthcare for the greater community. And to be clear — Pantego Creek’s members and managers have had no formal relationship with Vidant, nor were any appointed by Vidant.

When Vidant chose to close Pungo Hospital in 2014, an overwhelming majority of our membership chose the certainty of access to quality healthcare in Belhaven through Vidant’s new multispecialty clinic versus the uncertainty of attempting to reopen and operate a hospital in a very challenging and rapidly changing health care industry. Leaving our community with no healthcare was not an option for our organization — period.

Our members and managers live in and around Belhaven. Some even worked at Pungo Hospital, in some cases for over 30 years. No one wanted a hospital to thrive in our community more than we did. When it was announced the hospital was closing, our group acted immediately and negotiated with Vidant to ensure our community had continued access to medical care. The new multi-specialty clinic opened by Vidant has the ability to triage, stabilize and transport (even airlift) to major trauma centers. There are many, many communities in the United States that would love to have such a facility. Again, we live here. We now have quality care much better than most communities of our size.

In late 2016, Pantego Creek, LLC received three offers to purchase the old Pungo Hospital property, including two offers from Pungo Medical Center. After careful review, the managers of Pantego Creek, LLC declined the offers because they were valued far below the fair market value of the property, and because Pungo Medical Center admitted that it did not possess the necessary funds to close. Again, as a non-profit, no managers or members of Pantego Creek, LLC would benefit from the sale of the property — the community would. We have said time and again that any proceeds from the sale of the property would be used for community initiatives, preferably involving healthcare, for instance to fund scholarships for students of Beaufort and Hyde counties who wish to pursue careers in the medical field.

On Dec. 21, 2016, the managers of Pantego Creek, LLC appeared in business court in Raleigh in response to a lawsuit and a motion for preliminary injunction, both filed in an effort to prevent the buildings’ demolition. On Dec. 28, Superior Court Judge Gregory McGuire denied the motion, allowing demolition to commence, and effectively ending the case. As a property owner, Pantego Creek, LLC had to complete demolition before Jan. 1 to avoid incurring 2017 property taxes on the buildings in the amount of $29,218.22. This is why the demolition occurred immediately after the court ruling.

Many other facts and circumstances impacted the LLC’s decision-making over the past two and a half years and the viability of reopening Pungo Hospital: the declining population of our town, the lack of Medicaid expansion in North Carolina and evolving healthcare models emphasizing outpatient care. We have provided an overview of our LLC’s timeline, relevant documents, Q&A’s and relevant files for you to read at www.pantegocreekfacts.com.

We hope your readers can draw their own conclusions, as opposed to blindly relying on the inaccuracies and complete fabrications spread by a few, including the town crier.

Arey W. Grady III
Attorney for Pantego Creek LLC
On behalf of Deb Sparrow, Brantley Tillman, Darren Armstrong and Lynn Ross, managers of Pantego Creek LLC