Home Contra Costa County Public Employees Union, Local 1 Rallies to Highlight How Doctors Medical Center Closure Will Harm People’s Lives

Public Employees Union, Local 1 Rallies to Highlight How Doctors Medical Center Closure Will Harm People’s Lives

by ECT

San Pablo—On Wednesday, February 18, over 30 members and staff of Public Employees Union, Local 1 rallied in front of Doctors Medical Center (DMC) to send a strong message to hospital leadership, community leaders, and residents of West County that closure of this facility is not an option. Rally attendees walked a procession around DMC’s circular driveway alternately chanting, “When the community is under attack, what do we do,” and “Stand up, fight back!”

When Local 1 members and staff marched on to the sidewalk in front of DMC, many drivers passing by honked in solidarity and in support of the rally cry, “DMC saves lives; Save DMC!”

DMC is the only public hospital between Berkeley and Vallejo. Over 250,000 residents of West Contra Costa County cities like El Cerrito, Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Kensington, Hercules, Rodeo and Crockett rely on DMC to provide necessary health and wellness services. DMC also serves 80,000 uninsured and underinsured patients every year. These are necessary medical services which the most vulnerable in the community would not otherwise be able to attain.

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Peter Nguyen, General Manager of Local 1 said, “Somebody mentioned that it would take a miracle to keep this place open. Therein is the problem. It should not require a miracle for leaders in this area to understand they need to provide adequate and affordable health care to this underserved community.”

“Our hospital saves lives,” said Brenda Bagby, a patient accounts representative for DMC for over 30 years, and a Local 1 member. “The next public hospital is 17 miles away…if Doctors closes, it will mean a lot of lives.”

In an email, Kathy White, Interim CEO of DMC informed staff on Friday, February 13 that DMC had lost its creditor, and would not have enough funding to keep the hospital open beyond March 1. On Tuesday, February 17, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) letters sent by Bob Redlo, DMC’s Vice President of Labor Relations, started arriving. The letter outlined wind-down procedures, stating potentially 50% of employees “will be affected by the closure and will be laid off, commencing on April 15, 2015, and continuing through the final reduction of services by July 15, 2015.”

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