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UID:Indybay-18845875
SEQUENCE:19005790
CREATED:20211022T054200Z
DESCRIPTION:Watsonville Community Hospital nurses to hold informational picket Friday, 
 Oct. 22, to protest Prospect Medical Holdings’ dangerous short-staffing, 
 erosion of patient care standards, deteriorating working 
 conditions\n\nNurses who work at Watsonville Community Hospital will hold 
 an informational picket on Friday, Oct. 22, due to dangerous short-staffing 
 conditions and seriously deteriorating patient care and working conditions. 
  Nurses cite chronic short-staffing, threats to close the critical care 
 unit, and the decision in February 2021 by the Alabama corporate owners of 
 the hospital, global real estate investment firm Medical Properties Trust 
 (MPT), to bring in Prospect Medical Holdings to manage the 
 facility.\n\nUnder Prospect’s management, chronic understaffing has 
 worsened, forcing critically ill patients to be held in the emergency and 
 telemetry units for sometimes hours at a time because there simply aren’t 
 enough intensive care unit RNs to care for them. Nurses also say they are 
 facing reprisals for speaking out, and that nurses with vital experience 
 are making the hard choice to leave their community hospital due to the 
 unsafe conditions.\n\n“Watsonville used to be a wonderful place to work 
 where patients were at the center of our shared mission,” said Roseann 
 Farris, a registered nurse in the critical care unit. “But after we were 
 sold to an out-of-state, for-profit corporation, everything went downhill. 
 We have also watched as dozens of nurses have left due to unsafe conditions 
 and management negligence. Today, nurses are taking a stand and demanding 
 Prospect and MPT stop putting profits over the lives and safety of our 
 patients and community.”\n\nWhat: Watsonville Nurses Informational 
 Picket\nWhere: Watsonville Community Hospital, 75 Nielson Street, 
 Watsonville, C.A. 95076\nWhen: Friday, October 22, 2021, 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 
 p.m. with RN speak-out at 4 p.m.\n\n“It is hard to believe that despite 
 the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” stated Gloria Amaya, registered nurse in 
 the labor and delivery unit, “we are forced to take this serious step to 
 warn and call on our hard-hit community to help us hold this outsider, 
 for-profit company accountable for placing our patients, community, and 
 nurses in harm’s way. My fellow nurses and I will always stand up as 
 advocates. Patients, not corporate profits, are nurses’ bottom 
 line.”\n\nPress availability, photo opportunity: Nurses will be available 
 to speak with the press at the picket beginning at 2:30 p.m., or at the 
 speak-out at 4:00 p.m., 75 Nielson Street and Airport Blvd., Watsonville, 
 CA., 90576.\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/10/21/18845875.php
SUMMARY:Nurses Informational Picket at Watsonville Community Hospital
LOCATION:Watsonville Community Hospital, 75 Nielson Street, Watsonville, C.A. 95076
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/10/21/18845875.php
DTSTART:20211022T213000Z
DTEND:20211022T233000Z
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