LONG BRANCH — Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-06) today announced his strong opposition to RWJ Barnabas Health’s (RWJBH) plan to move Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch to a new hospital in Tinton Falls. The plan would move key services such as labor and delivery, acute care in-patient beds and the hospital license to the new facility in Tinton Falls, leaving behind what he termed “a shell of the current services.”
Monmouth Medical Center revealed plans in late 2022 to transform the former site of the Myer Center at Fort Monmouth, in Tinton Falls, and took ownership of a 36-acre parcel, part of the former Fort Monmouth property.
In June 2022, Monmouth Medical Center announced the site that formerly housed the Myer Center building at Fort Monmouth would be home to a new outpatient care facility.
RWJ Barnabas said in 2022 its plans could include a new, acute care hospital, and that if a new facility was built, it would operate in conjunction with the Long Branch campus.
Pallone says the plan now calls for services in Long Branch to be gutted and moved to Tinton Falls.
“This plan puts profits over working people in order to build a concierge hospital for wealthier patients,” said Congressman Frank Pallone. “Effectively closing Long Branch’s hospital will leave thousands of families without access to health care and will further strain other hospitals in the region at the same time the Trump Administration is slashing funding to health care. RWJ Barnabas Health’s unacceptable abandonment of the Long Branch community calls into question the health system’s status as a non-profit hospital.”
Pallone blamed Governor Phil Murphy and his Acting Health Commissioner for rejecting his plans to keep the Long Branch hospital open.
“I put forward a plan to allow a new hospital to be built in Tinton Falls, while keeping Long Branch a full-scale acute care hospital,” Pallone said. “RWJ Barnabas originally accepted the plan but then changed it at the prompting of the Acting State Health Commissioner, and ultimately the Governor. It is their fault this is happening, but they have the power to stop it. Now is the time for elected leaders and our community to tell Governor Murphy and Acting Commissioner Brown that this is unacceptable and to reject this proposal.”
A spokesperson for RWJ Barnabas Health did not immediately return a request for comment.
“For generations, families in Long Branch have relied on this hospital for acute care, births, and access to all kinds of health services that will now be lost,” said Long Branch Mayor John Pallone. “Last year, we celebrated the 135th anniversary of the founding of the Monmouth Medical Center. I’m extremely disappointed with the plan to move the hospital’s key facilities out of Long Branch and will do everything I can to stop this transfer of services. The people of Long Branch deserve to keep their hospital.”
Studies show hospital closures in urban and low-income areas disproportionately harm Black, Latino, and immigrant communities, deepening long-standing disparities in health outcomes, Pallone said. The relocation of services to more affluent areas effectively redirects health care resources away from those who need them most.
According to Pallone, New Jersey’s regulations plainly state, “The Department also must guard against the closing of important institutions and the transfer of services from facilities in a manner that is harmful to the public interest.” Allowing a hospital system to abandon a lower income and diverse community to build a concierge hospital that attracts more wealthy patients establishes a precedent that others may replicate.
Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch is an award-winning hospital that is rated better than many of the other hospitals in RWJBH’s system. This year, it was ranked the 9th best hospital in New Jersey by Newsweek, making it the 2nd best hospital in the RWJBH system. According to the RWHBJ’s website, the hospital annually receives accolades for being one of the safest hospitals in the region and is a top-performing health care organization that has achieved the 95th percentile or above for performance in patient experience.
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