Those officials were on much friendlier ground Monday night in Salem.

North Shore Medical Center’s proposal to spend $180 million to expand and renovate its Salem campus received mostly praise during a public hearing held by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health at the Hawthorne Hotel. About 100 people attended the meeting.

Residents and city officials joined with hospital officials and doctors in extolling the plan, which includes moving 48 medical/surgical beds from Lynn to Salem and turning the recently closed Spaulding Hospital into a 120-bed Behavioral Health Center to address mental health and addiction problems.

“We know it makes good sense for our community,” Mayor Kim Driscoll told state officials. “We think it will serve Salem well and the North Shore well from a health care perspective.”

North Shore Medical Center executives, doctors and nurses said the consolidation is needed because of the difficulty in maintaining and improving care at two hospitals less than 6 miles apart. They said adding more beds and building a new emergency department in Salem will reduce wait times and increase privacy for patients.

North Shore Medical Center is a part of Partners HealthCare and operates the hospitals in Salem and Lynn.

Health care advocates were especially pleased with the plan for the behavioral health center, which they said will help meet the growing need for mental health and addiction services as the state continues to deal with an opiate crisis.

Danna Mauch, executive director and CEO of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, said patients seeking mental health treatment are often forced to wait for hours or even days in emergency departments before a bed is available, or are sent far from their home for treatment.

Read the entire Salem News article here.