Striking Nurses, Patients, Community Keep Up Pressure to Save St. Luke’s Hospital With Monday March and Candlelight Vigil
Funeral Procession to Emphasize Loss of Patient Services and Impact on Community
Striking nurses and their community supporters will lead a New Orleans jazz-style funeral procession from a local church to St. Luke’s Hospital this Monday. The march and a candlelight vigil afterwards are designed to remind Sutter of the real-life impact of their attempt to close the community icon—and of the pain their cuts have already caused.
The potential closure is a key reason for the ten-day strike by 4,000 RNs at ten Bay Area Sutter hospitals, including St. Luke’s. The strike also turns on issues of patient care, including systemic endangerment of patients by understaffing. The strike has been marked by over 95 percent nurse participation and deep community support.
What: Jazz-style funeral procession from local church to
St. Luke’s Hospital, followed by candlelight vigil for future of hospital
When: March leaves at 6:00 p.m., Monday, March 24
Where: March from St. Anthony’s Church, 3215 Cesar Chavez St.,
San Francisco to St. Luke’s Hospital, 3555 Cesar Chavez Hospital
Despite calling a blue ribbon task force on the future of St. Luke’s, Sutter Health has given contradictory messages in recent days on their intentions, and it remains unclear why they need a public task force to determine the future of one of their own facilities. Last week, a Board of Supervisors sub-committee passed on to the full board a resolution finding Sutter Health engaged in medical redlining with its efforts to close the hospital, and ordering the City Attorney to explore what remedies civil rights law offers.
“Neither the City of San Francisco nor its nurses will ever allow Sutter Health to close down St. Luke’s Hospital, because it would spark a public health crisis,” said Jane Sandoval, an RN at the facility.
Some 4,000 registered nurses at 10 Bay Area facilities began a 10-day strike against Sutter Health Friday over serious problems with patient care, medical redlining, and healthcare for nurses, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee reports. RNs will walk the picket line through Sunday, March 30. A full schedule is below.
Thousands of RNs have struck Sutter facilities twice already, though this is the first 10-day strike. The key reason for the walkouts is the pattern of patient safety risks caused by Sutter’s refusal to schedule RNs to care for patients when nurses are on legally-mandated meal or rest breaks. Such scheduling gaps leave patients unattended and at risk for sentinel events. Nurses are also concerned over Sutter’s practice of medical redlining by closing hospitals in medically underserved areas (St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco and San Leandro Hospital), and their refusal to agree to fair settlements on issues of healthcare and retiree healthcare and pensions.
“Sutter cannot expect RNs to sit idly by and watch the ongoing problems with patient care and patient safety at our hospitals. When there are not enough nurses, patients are put at risk, period. We don’t want to strike, but our ethical obligation as patient advocates demands it,” added Sharon Tobin, an RN at Mills-Peninsula Health Services.
Following is a general schedule, with media events underlined; details sent out daily:
- Monday March 24 through Sunday March 30, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Picketing at all facilities, noon rallies at all facilities.
- Wednesday March 26, 5:30 p.m.: Candlelight vigil, San Leandro Hospital with local elected officials
- Sunday, March 30, 12 Noon: Major rally at CPMC with elected officials
- Monday March 31, 7 a.m.—Nurses return to work
Sutter Hospitals Affected
St. Luke’s Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, San Leandro Hospital, Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Delta in Antioch, and Sutter Solano in Vallejo.
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