After 20 rounds of talks and months of fruitless negotiations with owner Yale New Haven Health, workers from the system\u2019s Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London marched on Monday in front of the hospital\u2019s main entrance.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s event was an informational picket by three union locals representing nurses, paramedics,\u00a0techs and support workers. There were no work stoppages or impacts on patient care, but the union leaders said a strike could be called in coming months if negotiations continue to stall.<\/p>\n
“They haven’t addressed the basic safe staffing issues,” said\u00a0Mitch Ross, vice president of AFT Local 5051, which represents about 230 medical technicians and paramedics. The union and hospital management have yet to set a date for the next round of negotiations, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur leadership team continues to negotiate in good faith, and we are confident that we will reach an agreement that is fair, responsible and competitive within the broader healthcare marketplace,\u201d Yale New Haven Health said in a statement. \u201cL+M deeply values our workforce, and their skill and compassion are integral to our vision of providing access to high value, patient-centered care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nurses at the hospital are burning out due to a lack of workers in supporting staff roles, said\u00a0Katelyn Pluss of AFT Local 5049, which represents about 1,000 registered nurses. Without key support workers, nurses have had to take on additional tasks that threaten their ability to properly care for patients, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of people just retire. Other people have been leaving jobs. I’ve heard students go to other hospitals instead of staying where they’re training,\u201d\u00a0Pluss said of the impact of staffing issues. Cost-cutting drives from Yale New Haven Health management have also reduced the quality of some hospital equipment and impacted cleaning services, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A key issue in contract talks for\u00a0techs, who work in all of the hospital’s departments, is a new requirement that workers be available on call if needed to cover shifts, said union leader Cathy Van\u00a0Verdeghem.<\/p>\n
The policy reflects a shortage of workers in many areas of the hospital that results in patients waiting for care or have to reschedule procedures, \u00a0Van Verdeghem said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMandatory call is only a Band-Aid. The real problem is short staffing,\u201d \u00a0Van Verdeghem said. \u201cWe support nursing, we support outpatients, we support patient care. We support the community, and they’re whittling away at our foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pluss of the nurses union said most of the employees live in the New London area and depend on Lawrence + Memorial for their own care and the care of their loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want what patients need,\u201d\u00a0Pluss said. \u201cI’ve been a patient here before \u2014 I would want to make sure that I have enough staff, that we have a clean environment, that we have the supplies that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 20 rounds of talks and months of fruitless negotiations with owner Yale New Haven Health, workers from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1022807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[288118,210,1141,1142,68936,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1022806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-shoreline","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117155322232981951","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}