Northern Light to close Castine practice, relocate to Blue Hill

Local clinic served Castine and surrounding towns for nearly 100 years

Northern Light will cease services in Castine on Feb. 27. Photo by John Boit.

Jan. 14, 2026

By Emily Baer

Northern Light Health announced on Jan. 13 that it will relocate its Castine primary care practice to the Sussman Health Center on the Northern Light Blue Hill Hospital campus.

Patient care will discontinue in Castine on Feb. 27 and will transition to the Blue Hill practice on the same day. All staff–the one full-time doctor and four support staff–will be offered jobs at the Blue Hill hospital, according to a hospital press release.

“Northern Light Health has been proud to serve the Castine community for many years,” hospital president John Ronan said in a press release. “We carefully considered all of our options before making this decision but ultimately found that combining the practices is necessary to best support long term access to high quality, coordinated primary care for all of our patients. We are focused on ensuring a smooth transition for our Castine patients.”

The Castine location is a small practice staffed by a single medical provider and four staff members. The hospital system said in its release that “the practice has faced many of the same challenges that other small health centers in Maine and beyond experience: staffing difficulties, inconsistent access, shrinking patient panels [the number of patients seen by a physician], and high operating costs.”

Blue Hill Hospital’s decision to relocate the practice comes as the Castine Community

Hospital Corporation, founded in 1928, continues to evaluate options for healthcare in Castine. The corporation, which is an independent nonprofit separate from the town of Castine and Northern Light, owns the grounds and building where the Castine Health Center operates, and leases the building to Northern Light.

“[We] are disappointed,” said CCHC board president Bobby Vagt in an email. “In the coming week, we will meet as a board to discuss ways to ensure the future of physician directed care at the clinic.”

“We remain committed to our mission and will update the community [...] as our plans develop,” he said.

For its part, Northern Light said in its press release that “Blue Hill Hospital supports the Hospital Corporation’s work to explore models for care that may sustainably serve the community’s needs for the future.”

Castine staff will contact patients to help them transition their care to Blue Hill or to another provider of their choice, according to the announcement.

“We have room to welcome all of our Castine patients into our health center at Blue Hill Hospital, and we hope that they will choose to continue their care with us,” adds senior physician executive Dr. Michael Murnik. “We know that the hospital campus is familiar to many of our Castine patients who travel to Blue Hill for imaging, lab, and the emergency department–services unavailable in Castine.”