Boston attorney Greg McGregor said he filed a lawsuit Thursday in Suffolk County Superior Court seeking to stop a construction project that has closed the Prouty Garden at Boston Children's Hospital.
A group of 12 plaintiffs including Boston Children’s Hospital patients, doctors, donors and parents has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the hospital from moving forward with a $1 billion expansion project they say would include demolition of the popular Prouty Garden.
The suit, which Boston attorney Greg McGregor said he filed Thursday in Suffolk County Superior Court, claims the hospital has illegally begun construction and fundraising before receiving required state approval.
Boston attorney Greg McGregor said he filed a lawsuit Thursday in Suffolk County Superior Court seeking to stop a construction project that has closed the Prouty Garden at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Though hospital communications staff declined to comment on ongoing litigation, an attorney for Children’s wrote state officials earlier this month, saying the hospital planned for temporary and partial closures of the garden but no permanent closure.
Donated by Olive Prouty in 1957, the Boston Children’s Hospital garden is “the textbook example” of a therapeutic or healing garden with medical values, McGregor said.
“Now it’s the symbol of a much larger campaign to make sure the state uses the authority the Legislature gave it to do these financial reviews that have such a terrific impact on the cost of medical care in Massachusetts,” McGregor said.
The defendants in the suit include Children’s Hospital, the state commissioner of public health as well as construction companies involved in the project.
“DPH will be reviewing the contents of this lawsuit, which was filed earlier today,” Department of Public Health spokesman Scott Zoback said. “DPH does not comment on active litigation.”
The Department of Public Health is charged with determining the need for certain health care projects including original licensure of a facility, substantial changes in service, and construction or renovation projects over a minimum expenditure threshold. For hospitals, that threshold is set at $17,826,988.
The Determination of Need program, which was established to encourage equal access to health care services, help maintain quality standards and constrain overall health care costs, makes recommendations to the Public Health Council for approval of denial of the expenditures, according to the DPH.
