BERKELEY — By 2030, or possibly sooner, there may be no emergency medical services in Berkeley.

Alta Bates Summit Hospital will close its acute care facility and emergency department in south Berkeley sometime between 2018 and 2030, hospital officials said, confirming rumors swirling around the city for years.

The services will be consolidated at the Summit campus, in Oakland, as mandated by SB 1953, which requires by 2030, hospital facilities will be able to withstand a major earthquake.

The issue was highlighted March 29 when the City Council voted unanimously to direct the city Disaster and Health commissions to evaluate the consequences on the community of the closures and to explore alternatives.

Sacramento-based not-for-profit Sutter Health, owns the 110-year-old Alta Bates hospital. Alta Bates merged with central Berkeley’s Herrick Hospital in 1988, and in 1999, Alta Bates merged with Summit under Sutter Health ownership.

Councilman Jesse Arreguin expressed outrage.

“Sutter’s using the requirement that the Alta Bates Campus be earthquake safe as an excuse to consolidate services,” he said. “Moving acute care to Summit is going to make it that much more (difficult) for somebody in dire need of medical attention.”

Arreguin added that with last year’s closure of Doctors Hospital in San Pablo, “this is a huge issue for the whole I-80 corridor.”

Sutter Health CEO Chuck Prosper contended in an October 2015 memo to staff, that Alta Bates had to shut down services.

“We face a State of California seismic deadline that requires us to cease inpatient, acute care services at Berkeley’s Alta Bates Campus in 2030,” he wrote, conceding that the issue goes beyond earthquake safety.

“Regardless of the seismic deadline, we must adapt to changes in health care if we are to survive in today’s world,” he wrote. “Operating two full service hospitals less than three miles apart is inefficient.

“In today’s hypercompetitive environment, employers and consumers are choosing health services based on costs as much as quality. To excel we must be competitive.”

In an email exchange with this newspaper, Alta Bates spokeswomen Carolyn Kemp said she was unable to add detail to the future plans.

“We do not have a finalized long range plan at this time and therefore there are also no building plans,” Kemp said in an April 8 email.

“Ultimately our goal is to reuse the Alta Bates site in its permitted capacity.”

There are no plans to relocate the cancer and behavioral health services at the Herrick site, she said in an April 19 email.

Councilman Kriss Worthington, like Arreguin, argued at the council meeting that Sutter was using earthquake safety as an excuse to consolidate services.

“They’re saying, ‘State law requires us to do this,’ but that’s not what it requires us to do,” he said, contending in a phone interview last week that hospital administration should be flexible.

For example, it could shut down the acute care hospital while maintaining Berkeley’s emergency services, he said.

State Assemblyman Tony Thurmond is planning a regional meeting on the question with the community, city officials and Alta Bates’ representatives in the next few months.

“We’re still reeling from the loss of Doctors Hospital,” he said.

Having a local hospital is “literally important to the health of the community.”

Neighborhoods adjacent to Alta Bates have unique concerns.

They have struggled with the hospital for decades over questions of noise, traffic, litter and parking, according to Lucy Smallsreed, president of the Bateman Neighborhood Association.

Smallsreed said the neighborhood hasn’t succeeded in getting Alta Bates to discuss future site plans.

“We all like having the hospital there,” she said. “We just want them to be a good neighbor.”

The Disaster and Fire Safety Commission will discuss it at its meeting at 7 p.m. May 25, Fire Department Training Facility, 997 Cedar St.

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