Hundreds of New Hanover County residents submitted letters supporting UNC Health’s proposed hospital, including some independent healthcare providers and former Novant Health employees. 

The comments were submitted ahead of a public hearing on the projects, scheduled for Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. in the meeting room of the Arboretum Education Center. 

Three health care providers – UNC Health, Atrium Health and Novant Health – are competing for acute care beds in New Hanover County as part of the identified need for 225 inpatient beds in the 2026 State Medical Facilities Plan. Each submitted plans for hospitals in the Wilmington area on June 15, with projects totaling more than $1 billion combined. 

Public comments submitted to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services' (NCDHHS) Division of Health Service Regulation (DHSR), which independently reviews Certificate of Need applications, emphasize regional needs for higher-quality care and more competition among healthcare providers. 

Of the over 400 public comments sent to the state for review, the majority of letters written supported UNC Health's proposed 150-bed community hospital and included comments from some former employees at Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NH-NHRMC). 

“While working in Wilmington, I witnessed the tremendous dedication of nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals who worked tirelessly to care for patients,” wrote a former registered nurse at Novant Health. 

“Unfortunately, I also saw a healthcare system under significant strain,” she added. “Patients frequently faced long emergency department wait times, difficulty accessing specialists, delayed procedures and barriers to receiving timely care. Too often it felt as though financial priorities outweighed what was best for patients and frontline staff.” 

Jon Martell, founder of the Five Star Project, an advocacy group focused on improving healthcare conditions at NH-NHRMC, also submitted comments. Martell asked that 150 beds be awarded to UNC Health and 75 beds be awarded to Novant Health’s proposed heart and vascular tower. 

"Awarding 75 beds to Novant Health would recognize the importance of modernizing the region's existing tertiary referral center," Martell wrote. "New Hanover Regional Medical Center will remain Southeastern North Carolina's principal provider of trauma and other highly specialized services, and modernizing capacity there is an important investment. At the same time, the community's concerns regarding hospital quality should continue to receive close attention from Novant Health, local government and the public."

The hundreds of comments submitted also included comments from residents of neighboring Pender and Brunswick counties, and several comments urged the state to reconsider the Certificate of Need (CON) process. 

In a letter to state officials, Ellis Tinsley of Tinsley Surgical urged officials to view the 225-bed determination “as a floor for immediate relief.” 

“Public CON records show repeated capacity catch-up in New Hanover County,” he wrote. “This history should be interpreted carefully. It does not prove bad intent by any incumbent, and this paper does not accuse any hospital system of improper motive. It does show that planning has been recurrent and incremental rather than decisively ahead of demand.”

In comments submitted on one another’s applications, UNC Health argued that either UNC Health or Atrium could offer “much-needed competition and patient choice in the service area.” It added that Atrium Health’s proposed 42-bed community hospital would be too small to offer meaningful competition, and that UNC Health’s charges and costs are lower. 

In its own response, Atrium wrote that UNC Health’s project is overly ambitious and more than doubles the average projected capital cost of the other proposed hospitals. 

Novant Health, meanwhile, noted that both UNC Health and Atrium’s applications contain errors or flaws, making them non-conforming with statutory and regulatory criteria, and added that the projects could fragment the region's healthcare services. 

"NH-NHRMC is the most effective alternative regarding scope of services because it is the only applicant with an existing hospital presence, established clinical infrastructure, and a full continuum of tertiary and quaternary services in New Hanover County," Novant Health wrote of its application.

"A new community hospital provider would not replace NH-NHRMC’s regional role," it added. "Instead, the competing proposals could fragment lower-acuity volume while NH-NHRMC continues to carry the region’s higher-acuity tertiary, trauma, Medicaid, uninsured, and medically complex responsibilities."

DHSR has 90 to 150 days to review the applications and may approve portions of more than one application, given they do not exceed the 225-bed allocation. Public comments were accepted during the first 30 days of the review period, which has since closed.