Philadelphia City Council to hold a Public Hearing on Hahnemann Plan to fire Nursing Assistants

In the news release, Philadelphia City Council to hold a Public Hearing on Hahnemann Plan to fire Nursing Assistants, issued 29-Feb-2012 by District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees AFSCME, AFL-CIO over PR Newswire, we are advised by the organization that the information in the first paragraph is incorrect. A public hearing is not scheduled for tomorrow, March 1.

Philadelphia City Council to hold a Public Hearing on Hahnemann Plan to fire Nursing Assistants

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- City Councilman W. Wilson Goode is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Thursday March 1 to address Hahnemann Hospital's plan to fire its nursing assistants. The hearing is to begin at 10 a.m. in Room 401 at City Hall.

The plan has been the subject of protests and picketing by District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees AFSCME, AFL-CIO.

The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday, February 10:

Should focus on workers being fired

The front-page article Tuesday, "Hahnemann boosts use of registered nurses in bid to improve care," wrongly focused on the novelty of Hahnemann University Hospital's new for-profit nursing plan while misrepresenting the probable impact on the quality of patient care and the abhorrent fact that some 124 hardworking men and women are about to lose their jobs.

Since Tenet, a for-profit, Texas-based corporate giant, bought Hahnemann, the corporation has closed the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital and closed Graduate Hospital. At Hahnemann, the corporation has outsourced the dietary and patient-escort services, and eliminated all of Hahnemann's licensed practical nurses.

Now Tenet wants to cut out Hahnemann's caregivers, the workers who bathe, soothe, and feed patients, the workers always on hand to nurture patients back to health, the workers who do the jobs others don't. The loss of these jobs would be a devastating blow to these men and women whose families need their income to put food on their tables. We believe that patients will suffer.

District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees is resisting. We're fighting Hahnemann's plan to fire the entire staff of nursing assistants. We are fighting for quality patient care.

Henry Nicholas, President, District 1199C, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Philadelphia.

SOURCE District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees AFSCME, AFL-CIO