The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 Monday to support the Town of Belhaven’s attempt to retain full emergency-room services for whatever medical facility the town ends up with in light of Vidant Health’s plans to close Vidant Pungo Hospital.

The unanimously adopted resolution came during a called meeting of the board. Chairman Jerry Langley did not attend the meeting, which was led by Vice Chairman Al Klemm.

Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal said Belhaven officials, Beaufort County officials and Hyde County officials are scheduled to meet with Vidant Health officials, including CEO and President Dr. David Herman, in Greenville on Oct. 10. As of Monday, a time for that meeting had not been set.

“We have a life-and-death situation in Belhaven. We have situation where people, if the right things are not done, will die,” O’Neal told the board. “We have a situation where our heath-care provider, Vidant Health, has decided to change the level of care we have in Belhaven without talking with the people of Belhaven or the surrounding areas. … There’s about 20,000 people that are affected by Vidant Health’s decision, and they have asked for comment from no one, including three doctors that have worked in Belhaven for a combined 100 years. … The doctors weren’t even consulted.”

The mayor said the town’s health services are under attack.

“They trying to take life-saving mechanisms away from us,” O’Neal said.

The mayor said he and other town residents are concerned the clinic that Vidant Health plans to build to replace the hospital will not have a blood bank or CT-scan equipment.

“Well, with a CT scan, we learned that you have to have a CT scan to diagnose what type of stroke they’re having so you know that type of medicine to use,” O’Neal said. “If you use the wrong medicine, you’re going to kill whoever you’re working on. CT scan is vital. You can’t use the clot buster without a CT scan. Blood — I had an emergency-room personnel list three people that wouldn’t be with out today if it were not for blood. So, we have a situation here that is truly life-and-death.”

O’Neal said next week’s meeting, in part, is to obtain more information about Vidant Health’s plans for providing health care in the Belhaven area.

“There’s lot things that we’re not sure about and a lot of things that we have the information,” he said.

“We’re trying to get a declaration by the Beaufort County commissioners, Hyde County commissioners — Belhaven’s already done it — the U.S. senators, state senators, state representatives and the U.S. congressmen to all tell Vidant that we must have emergency-room services in Belhaven,” O’Neal said.

The mayor said he wants to take such declarations to the Oct. 10 meeting and share them with Vidant Health officials.

Early last month, the Vidant Community Hospitals board decided to close the hospital and replace it with a multispecialty clinic that will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Vidant Health plans a phased closing of the hospital during the next five or six months.

As services at the hospital are shut down, they will be offered at area Vidant Medical Group physician’s offices. Those services include specialty clinics, 24-hour-a-day care, laboratories, radiology and physical therapy.

Vidant Health expects to break ground on the new multispecialty clinic later this year. The new facility is expected to take about 18 months to complete.

For additional coverage of the board’s called meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.