Coalition Plans Protests, Petition Over Steward Health Care Hospital Closures
A coalition of labor, community, and faith-based groups is organizing protests and promoting a petition to prevent hospital closures and service reductions at Steward Health Care hospitals in Massachusetts. The coalition includes the Massachusetts Nurses Association and 1199 SEIU.
Rallies are planned outside Steward hospitals in Taunton, Brockton, Methuen, Haverhill, Fall River, Dorchester, and Brighton over the next week. The petition calls for the transition of Steward hospitals to new nonprofit ownership and a commitment to continue care services for 200,000 people in Steward zones.
The coalition says the loss of any of these facilities would deliver a devastating blow to the entire health care infrastructure in the Commonwealth, particularly to some of the most vulnerable and marginalized patients and families. Patients will be subjected to dangerous delays in care, be forced to travel longer distances for care, and for many, to go without care altogether.
State officials have sharply criticized Steward’s management and say they are working behind the scenes on contingency plans to safeguard health care. But the coalition, citing an April 30 Steward loan agreement deadline, says that “communities remain in the dark on long-term solutions to protect the future of care across the Commonwealth.”
The coalition plans a 3:45 p.m. Morton Hospital community rally Tuesday at the Taunton Green; rallies Wednesday in Brockton, Haverhill and Methuen; Fall River and Dorchester rallies Thursday; and a 3 p.m. rally in front of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton on Monday, April 29.
