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Indybay Feature
$8000 A Week Scabs At Sutter Alta Bates Hospital As CNA NNU Nurses & Techs Strike For 9th
For two years, Sutter CNA NNU nurses at many facilities in the East Bay have been fighting against concessions. On May 17, 2013 they launched their 9th strike and $8,000 a week scabs were brought into replace the workers.
$8000 A Week Scabs At Sutter Alta Bates Hospital As CNA NNU Nurses & Techs Strike For 9th Time
After two years and 9 strikes the bosses at Sutter Healthcare continue to demand major concessions from the CNA nurses. On May 17, 2013 nurses and techs struck again against the concession demands of management at Sutter Alta Bates, Summit and other hospitals. Sutter bosses are also spending millions on police and paying the replacement scabs more than $8,000 a week. At the same time the SEIU UHW leader Dave Regan continues to order his SEIU members at the Sutter hospitals being struck to cross the union picket lines. There is growing anger among the nurses about the attacks they face and the war against their union. The 9th strike started on May 17, 2013 and will go on for 7 days.
For more information from the CNA go to http://www.calnurses.org
Production of Labor Video Project http://www.laborvideo.org
After two years and 9 strikes the bosses at Sutter Healthcare continue to demand major concessions from the CNA nurses. On May 17, 2013 nurses and techs struck again against the concession demands of management at Sutter Alta Bates, Summit and other hospitals. Sutter bosses are also spending millions on police and paying the replacement scabs more than $8,000 a week. At the same time the SEIU UHW leader Dave Regan continues to order his SEIU members at the Sutter hospitals being struck to cross the union picket lines. There is growing anger among the nurses about the attacks they face and the war against their union. The 9th strike started on May 17, 2013 and will go on for 7 days.
For more information from the CNA go to http://www.calnurses.org
Production of Labor Video Project http://www.laborvideo.org
For more information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjMYmkAZaFk...
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With 9 strikes now, you must have figured out that you have to do something different to win. The only solution to ending the greed of private profit medical care is publicly financed medical care known as SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, with all medical care and medically related care paid for with our tax dollars from cradle to grave, including not just medical doctors, but also drugs, all medical devices, dental care, optometry, acupuncture, physical therapy, podiatrists, chiropractor, hospice and all other long term care for the old and disabled both in-home and in institutions, and all other healthcare. SOCIALIZED MEDICINE MUST BE WRITTEN INTO THE UNION CONTRACT.
THE REST OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD HAS SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, including all of Europe, Israel, Cuba, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. This is not radical; American labor is far behind in fighting for socialized medicine. EVERY SINGLE UNION CONTRACT, not just medical providers' contracts, MUST HAVE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE WRITTEN INTO THE UNION CONTRACT.
The United States now has the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy in the industrialized world. The rich may live to 82 and beyond, but the 80% of us who sell our labor for less than $80,000 a year, the workingclass, usually do not. The United States is No. 1 in military hardware and paying billions of our tax dollars to the military to fight blood for oil wars to make the rich richer, the only reason the military exists. WE CANNOT HAVE GUNS AND BUTTER.
As it is now, at Kaiser, the 60-64 age group is paying $784 per month with a $25 payment to see the doctor and a drug discount benefit, or something less per month with either less benefits or a high deductible, down to about $300 per month and a $5,000 deductible with no drug benefits. The cheapest plan for the same age group at Blue Cross is over $600 per month. A top ranked plan at Blue Cross for a patient on Medicare is $1515 per month. This is Obama-Romney care in 2013. I cannot imagine the horrors of 2014 as there is no cost control in Republican Mass former Gov Romney's healthcare plan gone national with Democrat Obama. They make much of insurance but INSURANCE IS NOT HEALTHCARE; it is just a profiteering racket.
YOUR UNION AND ALL OTHER UNIONS MUST ENDORSE ONLY THOSE PARTIES THAT SUPPORT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE: Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party. You can register now online at:
https://rtv.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/
For more information on these parties, see:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/about-us/platform/full-platform
Health Care
We believe that access to quality medical and dental care is a basic human right. We stand for a democratically-controlled, publicly-funded health care system. We support health practices that emphasize education, prevention and nutrition. We demand: Free, high-quality health care for everyone.
Eliminate for-profit health care.
Free immunization programs.
No private patents on drugs developed through publicly-funded research.
Price controls on drugs and medical technology.
Safe pre-natal care, including women's choice of birth alternatives.
More medical facilities to provide services and education in low-income neighborhoods and rural areas.
More substance abuse treatment and needle-exchange programs.
More research into diseases and disorders caused by man-made substances.
More community health care facilities.
Support non-standard proven methods.
Special attention to preventing epidemics of communicable diseases, such as AIDS.
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.cagreens.org/platform/health-care
Health Care
Every person has the right to adequate and affordable health care as well as confidentiality of medical data and records, and the right of deciding the fate of products derived from his or her body.
In California in 2005, 20% of the population is uninsured. Many more have insurance that is inadequate to pay for the care they need. Out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles, co-pays and the cost of insurance increase every year. Many, especially among seniors, pay out of their pockets for large portions of their health care costs. America spends more per person for health care than any other nation in the world. Yet it ranks only 37th by WHO standards in quality of health care.
Therefore the GPCA advocates the following policies:
The GPCA supports a Single Payer Universal Health Care system. This means health insurance coverage for ALL through a single insurance plan offered by the government, which would control the growth of health care spending through a simplified administrative structure, consolidated financing and purchasing, and statewide health planning.
That system must offer a comprehensive benefit package, including complete medical, dental, mental health, pharmaceutical, chiropractic, vision, hearing, hospice, and in-home care. No necessary service can be left out. If co-pays and deductibles are included to finance the system, they must be reasonable and affordable. This system should also cover long-term care and the medical component of Workers Compensation. We support state or federal efforts that would establish such a system.
Everyone must have access to all necessary medical care, including those who are economically disadvantaged. Preventive care is more effective, more humane and more cost-effective than treating people after they are already ill. Preventive care should be emphasized in the planning and financing of our health care system. Injury prevention and social support services should be supported. Measures to minimize post-traumatic stress syndromes, mental distress, and psychological problems after injury, illness, or social neglect need support too. We also support measures to assure adequate supply of primary care providers, nurses, and other allied health care personnel.
Care must be culturally competent. Our health care system must affirm rights to human dignity, personal choice, and privacy. It must practice respect for racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, and other cultural needs/differences. We support giving patients complete freedom of choice as to their form of treatment or to refuse treatment, as part of a patient's Bill of Rights.
The GPCA strongly supports a holistic approach to health care. Different philosophies of care, broadly characterized as conventional and alternative/complementary care co-exist and sometimes compete. Both have roles in a modern and compassionate health care system. We support funding for research for both conventional and alternative/complementary care to cure and prevent cancer, heart disease, AIDS/HIV, and other illnesses. We support funding for modalities of care with proven benefit or widespread popular acceptance, such as Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine. We support access to a natural birthing alternative for all women. We support licensing, medical malpractice insurance, and oversight of alternative/complementary care practitioners, identical to that those for other health care professionals. We support encouraging and educating people about healthy lifestyles, and more awareness of mechanisms of self-healing. In addition, we support funding holistic recovery services after any injury or illness.
Health care resources must be distributed fairly and used in an efficient and cost effective manner because these resources belong to all of us. Disparities between care for the wealthy and poor must end. Health care costs in 2005 account for 15% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
We support existing measures, programs, and legislative actions that will increase access to high quality, cost-effective medical services for all Californians until we get a Single Payer system, and as necessary afterwards.
We need reasonable prices for all medical goods and services. THE LARGEST SINCLE UNNECESSARY COST IN 2005 IS THE HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM. In addition, profits for pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and for-profit providers are often unjustifiably high. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, has the highest profit margin of any sector of the economy. It is also heavily subsidized by tax breaks, special patent legislation, and lucrative licensing arrangements by the federal government. We assume that Single Payer will bring costs for prescription drugs in line with what others in the world pay. This is accomplished through bulk purchasing. Until Single Payer is established, we support measures such as drug re-importation from Canada and high quality generic drugs to reduce drug costs. Drugs should be developed with public money with the objective of getting the best help for the most people. The public should receive a reasonable financial return on its investment. As long as we use the current system, we oppose any legislation to extend the patent of any specific drug.
We want hospitals, clinics, and other care providers to try to develop management that is democratic and representative. People representing health care workers, consumers, and other public interests should be included on the Board of Directors and other governing structures.
We demand that California's medical marijuana law be fully recognized and implemented by all the appropriate local, state, and federal jurisdictions. The federal government must not interfere with duly-enacted California laws on health care.
We support reimbursement of health care costs FOR ALL, including costs of therapy to treat psychological damage, mental distress, and traumatic shock as well as the physical effects.
The right to informed consent for any individual without force and without coercion relative to his/her own body for any medical, dental, pharmaceutical, or other procedure that involves body tissue/organ extraction, insertion, injection, sampling, or imaging. The informed consent must be verifiable, and neither forced nor coerced.
The products derived from body tissue or organ extraction, and from insertion, injection, sampling, and imaging cannot be used without informed consent of the patient or the person with Power of Attorney.
The right to confidentiality of all medical, dental, pharmaceutical record data for an individual unless otherwise decided by the individual without force and without coercion. Such data also include details on abortions, adoptions, drugs, cloning, test tube babies, aborted fetuses, genes, and DNA.
http://www.gp.org/index.php
http://www.gp.org/index.php/green-party-platform-table-of-contents/17-platform/39-ii-social-justice.html#HealthCare
1. Single-Payer Health Care
Enact a universal, comprehensive, national single-payer health plan that will provide the following with no increase in cost:
a. A publicly funded health care insurance program, administered at the state and local levels, with comprehensive lifetime benefits, including dental, vision, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, medication coverage, and hospice and long-term care;
b. Participation of all licensed and/or certified health providers, subject to standards of practice in their field, with the freedom of patients to choose the type of health care provider from a wide range of health care choices, and with decision-making in the hands of patients and their health providers, not insurance companies;
c. Portability of coverage regardless of geographical location or employment;
d. Cost controls via streamlined administration, national fee schedules, bulk purchases of drugs and medical equipment, coordination of capital expenditures and publicly negotiated prices of medications;
e. Primary and preventive care as priorities, including wellness education about diet, nutrition and exercise; Holistic health including homeopathy, naturopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, herbalism and medical marijuana;
f. More comprehensive services for those who have special needs, including the mentally ill, the differently abled and those who are terminally ill;
g. A mental health care system that safeguards human dignity, respects individual autonomy, and protects informed consent;
h. Greatly reduced paperwork for both patients and providers;
i. Fair and full reimbursement to providers for their services;
j. Hospitals that can afford safe and adequate staffing levels of registered nurses;
k. Establishment of national, state, and local health policy boards consisting of health consumers and providers to oversee and evaluate the performance of the system, ensure access to care, and help determine research priorities; and
l. Establishment of a National Health Trust Fund that would channel all current Federal payments for health care programs directly into the Fund, in addition to employees' health premium payments.
THE REST OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD HAS SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, including all of Europe, Israel, Cuba, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. This is not radical; American labor is far behind in fighting for socialized medicine. EVERY SINGLE UNION CONTRACT, not just medical providers' contracts, MUST HAVE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE WRITTEN INTO THE UNION CONTRACT.
The United States now has the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy in the industrialized world. The rich may live to 82 and beyond, but the 80% of us who sell our labor for less than $80,000 a year, the workingclass, usually do not. The United States is No. 1 in military hardware and paying billions of our tax dollars to the military to fight blood for oil wars to make the rich richer, the only reason the military exists. WE CANNOT HAVE GUNS AND BUTTER.
As it is now, at Kaiser, the 60-64 age group is paying $784 per month with a $25 payment to see the doctor and a drug discount benefit, or something less per month with either less benefits or a high deductible, down to about $300 per month and a $5,000 deductible with no drug benefits. The cheapest plan for the same age group at Blue Cross is over $600 per month. A top ranked plan at Blue Cross for a patient on Medicare is $1515 per month. This is Obama-Romney care in 2013. I cannot imagine the horrors of 2014 as there is no cost control in Republican Mass former Gov Romney's healthcare plan gone national with Democrat Obama. They make much of insurance but INSURANCE IS NOT HEALTHCARE; it is just a profiteering racket.
YOUR UNION AND ALL OTHER UNIONS MUST ENDORSE ONLY THOSE PARTIES THAT SUPPORT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE: Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party. You can register now online at:
https://rtv.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/
For more information on these parties, see:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/about-us/platform/full-platform
Health Care
We believe that access to quality medical and dental care is a basic human right. We stand for a democratically-controlled, publicly-funded health care system. We support health practices that emphasize education, prevention and nutrition. We demand: Free, high-quality health care for everyone.
Eliminate for-profit health care.
Free immunization programs.
No private patents on drugs developed through publicly-funded research.
Price controls on drugs and medical technology.
Safe pre-natal care, including women's choice of birth alternatives.
More medical facilities to provide services and education in low-income neighborhoods and rural areas.
More substance abuse treatment and needle-exchange programs.
More research into diseases and disorders caused by man-made substances.
More community health care facilities.
Support non-standard proven methods.
Special attention to preventing epidemics of communicable diseases, such as AIDS.
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.cagreens.org/platform/health-care
Health Care
Every person has the right to adequate and affordable health care as well as confidentiality of medical data and records, and the right of deciding the fate of products derived from his or her body.
In California in 2005, 20% of the population is uninsured. Many more have insurance that is inadequate to pay for the care they need. Out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles, co-pays and the cost of insurance increase every year. Many, especially among seniors, pay out of their pockets for large portions of their health care costs. America spends more per person for health care than any other nation in the world. Yet it ranks only 37th by WHO standards in quality of health care.
Therefore the GPCA advocates the following policies:
The GPCA supports a Single Payer Universal Health Care system. This means health insurance coverage for ALL through a single insurance plan offered by the government, which would control the growth of health care spending through a simplified administrative structure, consolidated financing and purchasing, and statewide health planning.
That system must offer a comprehensive benefit package, including complete medical, dental, mental health, pharmaceutical, chiropractic, vision, hearing, hospice, and in-home care. No necessary service can be left out. If co-pays and deductibles are included to finance the system, they must be reasonable and affordable. This system should also cover long-term care and the medical component of Workers Compensation. We support state or federal efforts that would establish such a system.
Everyone must have access to all necessary medical care, including those who are economically disadvantaged. Preventive care is more effective, more humane and more cost-effective than treating people after they are already ill. Preventive care should be emphasized in the planning and financing of our health care system. Injury prevention and social support services should be supported. Measures to minimize post-traumatic stress syndromes, mental distress, and psychological problems after injury, illness, or social neglect need support too. We also support measures to assure adequate supply of primary care providers, nurses, and other allied health care personnel.
Care must be culturally competent. Our health care system must affirm rights to human dignity, personal choice, and privacy. It must practice respect for racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, and other cultural needs/differences. We support giving patients complete freedom of choice as to their form of treatment or to refuse treatment, as part of a patient's Bill of Rights.
The GPCA strongly supports a holistic approach to health care. Different philosophies of care, broadly characterized as conventional and alternative/complementary care co-exist and sometimes compete. Both have roles in a modern and compassionate health care system. We support funding for research for both conventional and alternative/complementary care to cure and prevent cancer, heart disease, AIDS/HIV, and other illnesses. We support funding for modalities of care with proven benefit or widespread popular acceptance, such as Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine. We support access to a natural birthing alternative for all women. We support licensing, medical malpractice insurance, and oversight of alternative/complementary care practitioners, identical to that those for other health care professionals. We support encouraging and educating people about healthy lifestyles, and more awareness of mechanisms of self-healing. In addition, we support funding holistic recovery services after any injury or illness.
Health care resources must be distributed fairly and used in an efficient and cost effective manner because these resources belong to all of us. Disparities between care for the wealthy and poor must end. Health care costs in 2005 account for 15% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
We support existing measures, programs, and legislative actions that will increase access to high quality, cost-effective medical services for all Californians until we get a Single Payer system, and as necessary afterwards.
We need reasonable prices for all medical goods and services. THE LARGEST SINCLE UNNECESSARY COST IN 2005 IS THE HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM. In addition, profits for pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and for-profit providers are often unjustifiably high. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, has the highest profit margin of any sector of the economy. It is also heavily subsidized by tax breaks, special patent legislation, and lucrative licensing arrangements by the federal government. We assume that Single Payer will bring costs for prescription drugs in line with what others in the world pay. This is accomplished through bulk purchasing. Until Single Payer is established, we support measures such as drug re-importation from Canada and high quality generic drugs to reduce drug costs. Drugs should be developed with public money with the objective of getting the best help for the most people. The public should receive a reasonable financial return on its investment. As long as we use the current system, we oppose any legislation to extend the patent of any specific drug.
We want hospitals, clinics, and other care providers to try to develop management that is democratic and representative. People representing health care workers, consumers, and other public interests should be included on the Board of Directors and other governing structures.
We demand that California's medical marijuana law be fully recognized and implemented by all the appropriate local, state, and federal jurisdictions. The federal government must not interfere with duly-enacted California laws on health care.
We support reimbursement of health care costs FOR ALL, including costs of therapy to treat psychological damage, mental distress, and traumatic shock as well as the physical effects.
The right to informed consent for any individual without force and without coercion relative to his/her own body for any medical, dental, pharmaceutical, or other procedure that involves body tissue/organ extraction, insertion, injection, sampling, or imaging. The informed consent must be verifiable, and neither forced nor coerced.
The products derived from body tissue or organ extraction, and from insertion, injection, sampling, and imaging cannot be used without informed consent of the patient or the person with Power of Attorney.
The right to confidentiality of all medical, dental, pharmaceutical record data for an individual unless otherwise decided by the individual without force and without coercion. Such data also include details on abortions, adoptions, drugs, cloning, test tube babies, aborted fetuses, genes, and DNA.
http://www.gp.org/index.php
http://www.gp.org/index.php/green-party-platform-table-of-contents/17-platform/39-ii-social-justice.html#HealthCare
1. Single-Payer Health Care
Enact a universal, comprehensive, national single-payer health plan that will provide the following with no increase in cost:
a. A publicly funded health care insurance program, administered at the state and local levels, with comprehensive lifetime benefits, including dental, vision, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, medication coverage, and hospice and long-term care;
b. Participation of all licensed and/or certified health providers, subject to standards of practice in their field, with the freedom of patients to choose the type of health care provider from a wide range of health care choices, and with decision-making in the hands of patients and their health providers, not insurance companies;
c. Portability of coverage regardless of geographical location or employment;
d. Cost controls via streamlined administration, national fee schedules, bulk purchases of drugs and medical equipment, coordination of capital expenditures and publicly negotiated prices of medications;
e. Primary and preventive care as priorities, including wellness education about diet, nutrition and exercise; Holistic health including homeopathy, naturopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, herbalism and medical marijuana;
f. More comprehensive services for those who have special needs, including the mentally ill, the differently abled and those who are terminally ill;
g. A mental health care system that safeguards human dignity, respects individual autonomy, and protects informed consent;
h. Greatly reduced paperwork for both patients and providers;
i. Fair and full reimbursement to providers for their services;
j. Hospitals that can afford safe and adequate staffing levels of registered nurses;
k. Establishment of national, state, and local health policy boards consisting of health consumers and providers to oversee and evaluate the performance of the system, ensure access to care, and help determine research priorities; and
l. Establishment of a National Health Trust Fund that would channel all current Federal payments for health care programs directly into the Fund, in addition to employees' health premium payments.
When there's a nurses strike, "travel nurses" (Zeltzer calls 'em scabs) are brought in so patients still get the care they need or else the nurses would not be able to strike. Would you rather the hospital not bring in these scabs? Steve Zeltzer's LVP should know better but he engages in misleading reporting that benefits management.
Striking California nurses return to work as patient death raises tensions
Woman dies after medical mistake by replacement worker while thousands of Californian nurses locked out of their hospitals
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Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 September 2011 17.39 EDT
Article history
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/26/california-nurses-strike-patient-death
California nurses: about 23,000 members of National Nurses United went on strike last Thursday. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Thousands of Californian nurses will return to work on Tuesday morning after a four-day lockout by hospital management during which a patient died having been mistakenly given a lethal drug dose by a temporary replacement carer.
Judith Ming, 66, died on Saturday morning at Alta Bates Summit medical centre in Oakland after being given what police say was a "non-prescribed dosage of medication" at lethal levels. The drug was administered by a stand-in nurse brought in from Louisiana by the company that owns the hospital, Sutter Health, following a one-day strike organised by California nurses in protest at cuts to hospital services, benefits and working conditions.
About 23,000 members of America's largest nurses' union National Nurses United went on strike last Thursday, intending to return to their positions after 24 hours. Of those, 17,000 were allowed back by the health giant Kaiser Permanente, but 6,000 nurses were locked out for a further four days by the hospital chain Sutter Health and the independent Children's hospital in Oakland.
Martha Kuhl, one of the locked-out nurses, said the union had given two weeks' notice to employers before the strike began to allow them to assemble suitably qualified replacements, "but apparently that hasn't happened". She said the lockout had been unnecessary and regrettable.
"Qualified nurses were available to work, but management prevented them from returning. So, yes, I believe that the blame for the patient's death lies with them.
"Nurses with 24 years' experience were showing up for work, but were denied entry by security guards."
The hospital is carrying out an internal investigation into the death, and is co-operating with a police inquiry. Dr Steve O'Brien, the medical centre's vice-president of medical affairs, said the death was caused by medical error.
"While medical errors do exist in health care, we are constantly investing in ways to improve patient care. This is a most unfortunate event for which we are very sorry," he said.
Sutter Health also put out a media statement that accused the union of exploiting "the tragic death of a patient to further its own bargaining purposes". It said that all of the 500 replacement nurses that were used were experienced in the areas in which they were assigned.
The union says the strike was part of worsening relations between medical staff and employers, which unions accuse of driving hospitals relentlessly in a commercial direction and imposing market-based cuts in services – even though they are described as not-for-profit institutions. The union accuses management of trying to roll back on standards of health provision, including minimum nursing numbers per patient.
In some of the medical centres involved in the strike, managers have tried to change the conditions of nurses so they would have to pay $4,000 more a year to have their children treated at the hospitals at which they work – a hike that union members say would make the services they themselves supply unavailable to their own children.
Ming was being treated for cancer and had been at Summit hospital since July. Further information about her was being kept private under Californian and federal privacy laws.
Kuhl said it was inevitable that replacement nurses were less equipped to care properly for patients. "We work together, we know the equipment and we know each other's skills and abilities. When management brought in unqualified or even qualified workers, they don't have that advantage, and that sets people up, unfortunately, to make mistakes."
Woman dies after medical mistake by replacement worker while thousands of Californian nurses locked out of their hospitals
Tweet this
reddit this
Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 September 2011 17.39 EDT
Article history
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/26/california-nurses-strike-patient-death
California nurses: about 23,000 members of National Nurses United went on strike last Thursday. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Thousands of Californian nurses will return to work on Tuesday morning after a four-day lockout by hospital management during which a patient died having been mistakenly given a lethal drug dose by a temporary replacement carer.
Judith Ming, 66, died on Saturday morning at Alta Bates Summit medical centre in Oakland after being given what police say was a "non-prescribed dosage of medication" at lethal levels. The drug was administered by a stand-in nurse brought in from Louisiana by the company that owns the hospital, Sutter Health, following a one-day strike organised by California nurses in protest at cuts to hospital services, benefits and working conditions.
About 23,000 members of America's largest nurses' union National Nurses United went on strike last Thursday, intending to return to their positions after 24 hours. Of those, 17,000 were allowed back by the health giant Kaiser Permanente, but 6,000 nurses were locked out for a further four days by the hospital chain Sutter Health and the independent Children's hospital in Oakland.
Martha Kuhl, one of the locked-out nurses, said the union had given two weeks' notice to employers before the strike began to allow them to assemble suitably qualified replacements, "but apparently that hasn't happened". She said the lockout had been unnecessary and regrettable.
"Qualified nurses were available to work, but management prevented them from returning. So, yes, I believe that the blame for the patient's death lies with them.
"Nurses with 24 years' experience were showing up for work, but were denied entry by security guards."
The hospital is carrying out an internal investigation into the death, and is co-operating with a police inquiry. Dr Steve O'Brien, the medical centre's vice-president of medical affairs, said the death was caused by medical error.
"While medical errors do exist in health care, we are constantly investing in ways to improve patient care. This is a most unfortunate event for which we are very sorry," he said.
Sutter Health also put out a media statement that accused the union of exploiting "the tragic death of a patient to further its own bargaining purposes". It said that all of the 500 replacement nurses that were used were experienced in the areas in which they were assigned.
The union says the strike was part of worsening relations between medical staff and employers, which unions accuse of driving hospitals relentlessly in a commercial direction and imposing market-based cuts in services – even though they are described as not-for-profit institutions. The union accuses management of trying to roll back on standards of health provision, including minimum nursing numbers per patient.
In some of the medical centres involved in the strike, managers have tried to change the conditions of nurses so they would have to pay $4,000 more a year to have their children treated at the hospitals at which they work – a hike that union members say would make the services they themselves supply unavailable to their own children.
Ming was being treated for cancer and had been at Summit hospital since July. Further information about her was being kept private under Californian and federal privacy laws.
Kuhl said it was inevitable that replacement nurses were less equipped to care properly for patients. "We work together, we know the equipment and we know each other's skills and abilities. When management brought in unqualified or even qualified workers, they don't have that advantage, and that sets people up, unfortunately, to make mistakes."
For more information:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/2...
Scab Nursing Agencies-Travel Nurses Beware
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/affiliates/entry/cna-facilities
Travel nurses beware!
The following "scab registries" make a profit by providing scabs to employers who are trying to break strikes by registered nurses. This kind of nurse strike breaking always leads to diminished patient care at the facility and is always a blow to the creation of a national nurse movement. They may keep you in the dark about what kind of assignment you’re going to receive, or how difficult it will be.
Please support your fellow RNs by refusing to accept contracts at facilities on strike, or from the following agencies with a history of strike-breaking:
• Advanced Clinical Employment Staffing (ACES)
• Crisis Nurse
• FASTAFF
• Health Source Global Staffing
• Healthcare Contingency Staffing Services, Inc.
• Huffmaster Crisis Management
• Modern Industrial Services
• Modern Staffing & Security Consultants, Inc.
• Nurse Bridge
• TravelMax
• US Nursing/ US Nursing Corp
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/affiliates/entry/cna-facilities
Travel nurses beware!
The following "scab registries" make a profit by providing scabs to employers who are trying to break strikes by registered nurses. This kind of nurse strike breaking always leads to diminished patient care at the facility and is always a blow to the creation of a national nurse movement. They may keep you in the dark about what kind of assignment you’re going to receive, or how difficult it will be.
Please support your fellow RNs by refusing to accept contracts at facilities on strike, or from the following agencies with a history of strike-breaking:
• Advanced Clinical Employment Staffing (ACES)
• Crisis Nurse
• FASTAFF
• Health Source Global Staffing
• Healthcare Contingency Staffing Services, Inc.
• Huffmaster Crisis Management
• Modern Industrial Services
• Modern Staffing & Security Consultants, Inc.
• Nurse Bridge
• TravelMax
• US Nursing/ US Nursing Corp
For more information:
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/affili...
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