STUART, Va. (AP) – The owner of a shuttered Patrick County hospital says it is in negotiations with potential tenants and buyers. Virginia Community Capital tells the Martinsville Bulletin they are making all efforts possible to find someone to take over the former Pioneer Hospital in Stuart. It was the county’s only one. But the chairman of the county board of supervisors says the company is asking far too much and hasn’t been willing to negotiate a sale to the county for a “more realistic” price. State lawmakers passed a bill this year that aimed to get the hospital reopened. The measure retroactively extended the hospital’s expired license. The newspaper reports that since the hospital’s closure, rescue squads have had to take residents on drives as long as 50 minutes to get them treatment.
