The Department of Public Health has scheduled a series of hearings to address the concerns of residents affected by the planned closure of Steward Health Care’s Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center.

According to DPH, four hearings — one each in person and virtual for either hospital — will be held this month, ahead of Steward’s planned end-of-month closures. The hearings will not, it seems, prevent the company from moving forward with its plans.

“These hearings will not be adjudicatory in nature, but rather public forums for the presentation of any comments which may be relevant to the Department’s consideration of the proposed change,” DPH wrote in their announcement.

An in-person hearing over the fate of Carney Hospital is scheduled for 6 p.m. on August 13 at Florian Hall. Nashoba Valley’s in-person hearing will be held at Devens Commons Center on August 15, also at 6 p.m. Virtual hearings are scheduled for August 14 and 19, both at 6 p.m.

The hearings come after Steward, which declared bankruptcy in May, indicated that its attempt to auction off Carney and Nashoba Valley had failed and that the company would close the pair of hospitals by the end of August.

The state, which generally requires 120-days notice ahead of a hospital’s shuttering, has thus far not taken any official steps to prevent those closures, citing the need for Steward to focus on transitioning its six other hospitals to new owners and the fact the company is in the midst of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. A Texas-based bankruptcy judge has ruled Steward can close Carney and Nashoba Valley.

Officials in Ayer, on Tuesday, voted unanimously to call on Gov. Maura Healey to declare that a public health emergency is in the works and to order the DPH to prevent their community from losing its hospital, explaining that “the impending closure of the NVMC by August 31 will create a health desert in the Nashoba Valley Region, impact over 100,000 residents of the Commonwealth; increase emergency response times by over an hour; cut off direct, local access to public health care to the regions’ most vulnerable populations.”

They “respectfully request” that the governor declare that a public health emergency exists now and instruct DPH Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein to “take such action to assure the maintenance of public health by keeping NVMC open and operational.”

The town leaders also ask that Healey “do everything in her powers as Governor to ensure the 120-day closure period.”

The hearing announcement comes after Massachusetts agreed to float Steward $30 million in MassHealth related payments the company would have been due eventually anyway, with an aim toward keeping it’s hospitals open until at least the end of August as the sale process continues.

According to the lawyer representing the Commonwealth through bankruptcy proceedings, Steward has made “significant progress” toward closing the deal on the hospitals that received “qualified bids.”

Steward also operates Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton.