‘We want Mikie Sherrill to save our hospital.’ N.J. community’s final rallying cry for health care.
Taken from NJ.com
March 13, 2026
When her husband was struck by a hit-and-run driver two years ago, Jersey City resident Meera Jaffrey scooped him up and brought him to the emergency room at Heights University Hospital.
“He was a bloody mess, thank God this hospital was here,” said Jaffrey, a resident of the city’s Heights neighborhood for more than 40 years. “To me, it’s a shame that the hospital closest to where I live is being shut down. I don’t know what we’re going to do if we’re in an emergency situation.”
Jaffrey and roughly a dozen other locals braved rain and hail Thursday to gather outside the hospital’s ER and protest its impending closure. After more than a century in operation, the ER faces the same fate as the hospital itself, which filed a Certificate of Need for Closure in November 2025 in the face of what owners described as multi-million dollar losses. City residents, hospital employees and elected officials are looking to Gov. Mikie Sherrill for a Hail Mary.
“We want Mikie Sherrill to save our hospital,” said Jaffrey.
On Wednesday, the Jersey City Council unanimously passed an emergency resolution urging the Sherrill administration to take all measures necessary to prevent the ER’s closure.
Mayor James Solomon said the resolution wasn’t a mere symbolic gesture, but “a formal call to action at the highest levels of state government.”
“First and foremost, we are calling on Governor Sherrill and the attorney general to file an immediate court injunction to stop this closure before HRH (Hudson Regional Health) can shut the doors,” Solomon said Thursday during a live-streamed press conference.
While Sherrill hasn’t mentioned fighting the ER closure in court, her staff said Thursday that the administration will hold the hospital’s owner, Hudson Regional Health, responsible for breaking the law.
“Hudson Regional Health has routinely circumvented statutory and regulatory requirements throughout the process of closing Heights University Hospital, accruing tens of thousands of dollars in penalties owed to the state — which we intend to collect,“ said Maggie Garbarino, an office spokesperson. “As Heights University Hospital illegally closes its Emergency Department, we are working to inform the community of this abrupt closure and mitigate any negative impacts. New Jersey Department of Health staff are actively engaged to ensure patient safety and access to care, and ambulances will be on site to redirect any patients as needed.
“The Sherrill Administration is committed to ensuring this does not happen again, and the Governor will be pursuing legislation to give the state more tools to hold health care facilities accountable to the patients and communities they serve.”
Earlier this week, Sherrill said her office became involved after learning the ER was going to close despite state regulations.