America's Hospital Emergency

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2019

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A small town goes on life-support after its lone hospital closes. The story of Jamestown, Tennessee, recorded in the emotional hours and days after its 85-bed facility shut. Rural hospitals are closing across the United States, leaving patients dangerously exposed. Can Jamestown buck the trend and reopen? Produced and presented by Neal Razzell.

Image: Montage – 1960s headline announcing hospital opening with sign announcing the 2019 closure of Jamestown Regional Medical Centre. Credit: BBC/Neal Razzell

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to assignment on the BBC World Service.
0:04.0	It's been crazy.
0:05.9	My phone has been ringing off the hook since last night.
0:09.8	I had calls until probably about midnight last night.
0:13.8	And this morning it's been the same way.
0:15.6	And so it's been kind of crazy.
0:17.8	This is Linden Baines, mayor of Jamestown in eastern Tennessee.
0:22.5	Don't be fooled by his drawl.
0:24.7	He's in the midst of a crisis.
0:27.0	Last night I get the call.
0:28.3	It around 7 o'clock last night,
0:30.1	there was shutting the doors.
0:32.0	And I'm like, what's going on here?
0:37.8	Please, please.
0:41.2	That's the mayor's Led Zeppelin ring tone.
0:43.0	Hello?
0:45.0	No, it's the hospital. They closed last night at 7 o'clock.
0:49.0	No, it's gone to.
0:54.1	The whole thing's closed.
0:55.1	It was as up 7 o'clock last night.
0:57.0	Okay, well, I'll let Senator Alexander now because he had inquired the verdict. I'm Neil Rizzell, and I was in Jamestown as news spread that its only hospital had closed.
1:08.6	Yeah, we're just trying to figure out what we can do here and everything and working on that.
	...

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