Last Thursday, Southcoast Health brought together nursing, business, health, and political leaders at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford to show the community’s widespread opposition to Question 1.
Southcoast President & CEO Keith Hovan stressed that Question 1 “is not just a healthcare issue, it’s a community issue” that will affect the area’s workforce and public health “in ways we can currently only imagine.”
If Question 1 were to pass, it would cost Southcoast alone $38 million annually to hire an additional 255 nurses. And since the state would require at least 4,200 additional RNs – and since that supply of nurses does not exist – Hovan said Massachusetts would be forced to recruit RNs from, potentially, overseas. “Layoffs and cutbacks will occur most certainly at Southcoast and at community hospitals,” Hovan said, adding that “everything would be on the table” in terms of cutbacks to fund Question 1’s mandates.
Also speaking at the media event was Cheryl Bartlett, the president and CEO of Greater New Bedford Community Health Center, and the former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health during the Deval Patrick Administration. Bartlett was the first RN to serve as DPH Commissioner. She said Question 1 would drain nurses from her health center and others as hospitals, facing the staffing mandate, would offer RN wages well above what health centers could afford. She said access would suffer especially for the patients most at need that rely on community health centers.
Also speaking were Registered Nurse Lee Pacheco, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell (D), State Rep. Chris Markey (D-New Bedford), and Rich Kidder, president of the SouthCoast Chamber of Commerce.