The Boston City Council took action Wednesday to press the city’s mayor to declare a public health emergency in relation to Steward Health Care’s plan to close Carney Hospital, with the aim of keeping the Dorchester facility open.

The Council passed a resolution, 12-0, calling for the emergency declaration to be made by the Boston Public Health Commission, and for city and state government leadership to be prepared, if there are no bidders for Carney Hospital, to seize the property by eminent domain to keep it open until a permanent operator is found.

“We’re happy with the results,” Councilor John FitzGerald, who represents Dorchester and co-sponsored the resolution, told reporters after it was passed. “But we know that it still doesn’t give us a lot of the tools that we need to actually make things happen.

“Our job now is to convene the appropriate parties because I think there are still deals to be made that can happen that can save these nurses’ jobs, as well as provide services to our residents of Dorchester and beyond the city.”

FitzGerald acknowledged that the non-binding resolution has no teeth, but said that its passage is a “good first step” and a “message that will be sent” so “the whole city understands the ramifications of what will happen if this hospital closes.” A closure hearing for Carney is set for next Tuesday, he said.

He and the measure’s other co-sponsor Ed Flynn spoke of the devastating effects they say would be felt, not only by the Dorchester community, but citywide if Steward were to follow through with its plan to close Carney Hospital by Aug. 31.

“This closure would exacerbate the already overburdened hospital system that we have today,” FitzGerald said.

The roughly 30,000 emergency room visits per year at Carney will be pushed out to other hospitals, likely the Boston University Medical Campus in the South End, which is “also overstretched,” Flynn, who represents that area, added.

“We’re already in a public health crisis and emergency in the city of Boston,” Flynn said. “We have to acknowledge that, address it and deal with it. And one of the ways we can do that is keeping the Carney Hospital open.”

While largely symbolic in nature, the resolution’s passage prompted an immediate emotional response from several nurses from Carney Hospital, who showed up in large numbers at the meeting to show support for the emergency declaration.

The Council action provided the first glimmer of hope for the nurses in what has otherwise been a hopeless situation since Steward last month abruptly announced plans to close the Dorchester hospital by this month’s end, said Elaine Graves, a 70-year-old nurse who has worked at Carney for 48 years.

“We’re hoping that it will just give it extra time, so that maybe we can find a buyer and someone who would like to bid it and take over at the hospital,” Graves said.

The closure of Carney and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, which was announced at the same time, are part of the for-profit owner Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings.

The Council’s resolution also urges the appropriate government officials to ensure that Steward is following all local and state laws — the latter of which require providers to give 120 days’ notice for an essential services’ closure.

When asked whether Steward’s plan to close Carney was expected, Graves said she wouldn’t necessarily characterize it that way, but “there was a little writing on the wall” before it was announced.

“They were cutting down on services and there were so many issues with vendors, and it just wasn’t the same hospital,” Graves told the Herald.

Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson alluded to the worsening situation in her reasoning for why, in part, she wasn’t voting in favor of the emergency declaration resolution. She abstained from taking a position, by voting present.

Fernandes Anderson said she’s heard from residents she represents in Dorchester and Roxbury, who have expressed concerns with the care they’ve received at Carney Hospital.

“I feel it’s important to make the distinction between general meaningful services and services that have been provided by the Carney in Boston,” Fernandes Anderson said.

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Mayor Michelle Wu’s office said Wednesday that while it was committed to keeping the conversation going and continuing to advocate “for every resource to manage these devastating impacts,” the city won’t be making an emergency declaration because it wouldn’t provide any help with addressing the “crisis.”

“The city is continuing to work with colleagues at every level of government and all stakeholders to plan for every possible scenario and pursue all paths forward to ensure access to care for our residents and needed supports for this important workforce,” a Wu spokesperson said in a statement.

“Our careful review of local emergency declarations has shown that a public health emergency declaration is used to override procurement processes or accelerate the deployment of available federal or state funds,” the city statement continued. “However, a declaration would not create any new authority or resources at the local level to address this crisis, so we continue to partner on what the city can best deliver and advocate for alongside our community.”

The governor’s office declined to comment on the Council action, citing the local nature of the emergency declaration push.

Gov. Maura Healey previously said that there is nothing she can do to prevent Steward from shuttering Carney Hospital, Nashoba Valley Medical Center, or any other facility, if that’s their plan.

“It’s Steward’s decision to close these hospitals, there’s nothing that the state can do, that I can do, that I have the power to do, to keep that from happening,” Healey said. “But I’ve also said from the beginning that we are focused on health care.”