Seeing nearly 200 patients in its first month of operation, the Hilltowns’ sole medical provider, Hilltown Healthcare, is off to a running start.

An important need — health care in the rural Helderberg Hilltowns — was filled because it was clearly defined. A brave woman, backed by her family, stepped forward to take a risk because she cared about the people she had treated. A community, led by a modest man with great energy and dedication, rallied others to the cause in an organized and positive way. So now the old doctor’s office in Berne has opened as a new medical practice.

One-hundred-and-fifty-seven days after Community Care Physicians shut down its Helderberg Trail practice and left Berne without a local provider, a new medical practice will open its doors to the public. 

The county and state departments of health are both investigating after a resident has fallen ill. 

Jonathan Halpert said his urgent-care center in Guilderland has served as a stopgap in recent months for Hilltowns health after the only doctor’s office in Berne closed.

Martin hopes to have her medical practice open by December, and is also working to have the surrounding area designated as medically underserved.

“A lot of these people have no family left — except for us,” says Jill Martin, speaking about homebound Hilltown patients. Martin is a nurse practitioner who hopes to open her own practice in the fall after her current employer, CapitalCare Family Practice Berne, shuts its doors at the end of this month.

A meeting on Monday, June 24, will be held at the Helderberg Ambulance building on Cole Hill Road in Berne to discuss what options the community has after the only doctor’s office in town closes.

Resolve that this is not the end of an era of excellent care in the Hilltowns. Berne must find an independent doctor who cares.

BERNE — Patients in the Hilltowns are wondering where they will go for medical care after learning that a decades-old doctor’s office, now known as CapitalCare Family Medicine Berne, will be closing.