Middlesex Hospital closed its medical facility in Essex on April 28, 2014, and the property has been vacant ever since. Photo by Jerome Wilson.
It has now been almost two years, April 28, 2014 to be exact, since Middlesex Hospital closed its medical center in Essex. For the present, however, according to Middlesex Hospital’s Director of Public Relations, Peg Arico, there are “no plans” by the hospital regarding the future of the shuttered facility.
Essex First Selectman Norman Needleman said in a separate interview that he had learned that Middlesex Hospital had retained an “outside consultant” to explore options for its unused hospital facility in Essex. Currently only “No Trespassing” signs mark the site.
Some Essex residents have expressed the hope that Middlesex Hospital will soon decide what to do with the unused and, generally considered, unattractive property in Essex. There is a feeling that the “No Trespassing” signs on Westbrook Rd. are not an especially pleasant way to welcome visitors entering historic Essex.
At the same time, Middlesex Hospital’s new Shoreline Medical Center patient care facilities in Westbrook, which replaced the Essex clinic, have been very well received by Essex residents in general.