Robbinsville – Despite rumors and some questions to the contrary, Graham County has stated that Smoky Mountain Urgent Care will remain in operation.
The county provided a statement to The Graham Star on Tuesday morning calling social media posts that the county was closing the urgent care clinic “blatantly false.”
However, Smoky Mountain Urgent Care physician Dr. David Castor said that the county sent him a notice on Nov. 23 that it would be terminating contracts with the clinic for primary imaging and care of inmates in the Graham County Jail, as well as the lease on the clinic building. He said the lease was meant to last 10 years, with the clinic currently being in year three.
County Manager Jason Marino said he could neither confirm nor deny whether such a notice was sent, due to ongoing legal proceedings.
“Graham County leadership is committed to continue providing excellent healthcare through an urgent care facility while exploring opportunities to expand services to better meet the needs of Graham County citizens,” Marino said.
Marino also said that further announcements would be made once legal issues were settled.
Castor said that he was “very surprised” regarding the alleged notice and that he was actively looking for sites where the clinic could relocate.
“We’re going to try to fight it,” Castor said. “We’ll see what happens. I don’t know. It’s a shame, because there’s not a lot of providers in Graham County.”
He said the clinic had not had much contact with the county in recent history, other than some contention over installing an AED unit on the wall prior to state inspection.
Castor stressed that he believed the county would have rather used its own contractor for the work, rather than the firm he hired.
“They hadn’t contacted me in probably a year outside of the improvements, and that was to pass the state inspection,” Castor said.
He said that when he contacted the county regarding the alleged notice, he was told that it couldn’t be discussed due to legal issues.
“We do everything that we’re supposed to do contractually, but they won’t talk about it,” Castor said.
Castor also made reference to two specific claims raised by the county: the first being objection to the clinic’s hours and the second being that the clinic was not paying its fair share on the imaging equipment.
Castor contends that the clinic had been making such payments on time.
“We’re open seven days a week from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. on weekends,” Castor said. “I’m not sure why that’s not good enough.”