FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts knows how he'd like to spend $2 billion. It's not on a new jail.
"That's a lot of money for taxpayers to have to pay, and I think that the taxpayers would fall on the side of a new hospital versus a new jail for prisoners," he told 11Alive. "There is a move on the part of the board to build a new, first-class hospital facility in south Fulton County."
Wellstar closed its Atlanta Medical Center South in 2022, leaving the area without a full-service hospital. Several smaller, specialized options have opened in the two years since, but Pitts knows they need more.
A new hospital could cost upwards of $1.5 billion, he said.
"People in south Fulton County have no access to a first-class medical facility," he said. "Grady has announced a freestanding emergency clinic, which is a big step forward. The Morehouse School of Medicine is looking at a new hospital facility in south Fulton County. And long-term, Grady is looking at a new facility in south Fulton County. So, it's a very real possibility in the next several years."
Claire Presnall, who lives near the closed AMC South, said she'd be thrilled to see a new option.
"We definitely used the hospital back when it existed, and then they got rid of it," she said. "I'm not even really sure where we would have to go if we had an emergency. I assume Grady? That seems ridiculous."
She said she would really appreciate having closer healthcare choices, even if taxpayers are footing part of the bill.
"I don't think that having a hospital locally is too expensive. That's the kind of the thing that we should be spending our money on — having services that people can access," Presnall told 11Alive. "Having a hospital that is here versus having to go into town or OTP or something like that would be really important for this community."