WARE — Five years after it started closing down Mary Lane Hospital, Baystate has made itself the beneficiary of the $8 million Lewis Gilbert Trust originally meant to support the hospital.
Baystate Wednesday reiterated plans to utilize earnings from the trust to help fund a new primary and convenient care facility in Ware. The health care giant said Wednesday it will name the convenient care component Baystate Mary Lane Convenient Care — Ware.
Baystate said it is looking for sites, having rejected the idea of using the old Mary Lane site, now mostly leveled and being pitched for redevelopment.
Heavy machinery sits outside the Davis building of the Mary Lane Hospital ready for demolition on Monday. Groups in the area are nervous that the whole site will be demolished, not just the two structures. August 7, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
The Hampshire Probate Court modified the Gilbert Trust last month, according to court records.
That move came over objections of the Friends of Mary Lane Hospital, as community groups, smarting over the Mary Lane closure, that had been pushing for the court to put the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts in charge of the trust so it can be used to bring in another health care provider.
“I think the message that our residents would like to say is that we need more than what Baystate is willing to offer,” said Cynthia Allen Bourcier, chairperson of Friends of Mary Lane Hospital.
But neighbors seek urgent care, a more capable facility with labs, imaging capable of treating injuries.
“That’s what’s overwhelming the Wing emergency room,” she said, referring to Baystate Wing Hospital 10 miles away in Palmer.
In its news release Wednesday, Baystate said it expects to lose several hundred thousand dollars a year in Ware.
“This investment advances our mission to deliver compassionate, quality and accessible care — advancing our communities’ health for all,” Baystate said in the written statement.
Both Baystate and Friends of Mary Lane Hospital would like to use money from the federal Rural Health Transformation Fund.
Baystate Health President and CEO Peter Banko met with Rep. Richard E. Neal at the TD Bank building in Springfield on Monday morning to discuss the state of health care in Western Massachusetts. Dec. 15, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
Massachusetts secured about $162 million from the federal government in December. The fund was part of the President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill meant to appease senators concerned about the loss of health care.
Bourcier said the Friends and officials from neighboring towns met this week with state and federal officials to see about securing some of that $162 million to bring more health care to Ware.
Baystate has a plan for the Rural Health Transformation Fund as well by educating new doctors in Ware.
Baystate’s Family Medicine Residency Program trains 12 new medical residents — taking in four new doctors a year — at Baystate Franklin in Greenfield.
The plan is to access Rural Health money and expand the program from Greenfield to Ware, said Peter Banko, president and CEO of Baystate.
“So faculty and residents would have a clinic in Ware,” Banko said in an interview last month.