Email to webmaster (Gene Lantz) Back to home page
Registered Nurses presented the facts about Texas hospital care
On April 24 through May 3, the National Nurses Organizing Committee scheduled Town Hall meetings in major Texas cities. The Fretz Recreation Center in North Dallas was the site of one of them on April 26. Nurse Shelly presided over four panelists: Nancy, Deborah, Rossia, and Jan. Each of them presented a desperate picture of declining health care in Texas hospitals. The audience, mostly registered nurses, echoed their concerns and, in some cases, told even more alarming stories. In one case, a patient had fallen off a treatment table and broke his neck because overworked nurses were somewhere else!
All of the participants were urging passage of House Bill 1707 in the Texas Legislature. The bill is being carried by Representative Garnet Coleman of Houston and is currently in committee. Everyone is urged to contact their state representatives. The Texas Alliance for Retired Americans is one of the many concerned organizations that want to see this legislation passed.
The bill would lower patient/nurses ratios and protect nurses from being fired for defending patient care in today's "Money First" Texas hospitals. Nurses talked about being fired or intimidated by profit-hungry hospital administrators. They all agreed that they only went into nursing to help their patients, but the 'bottom line' in hospital care today is profits alone. Rossia said, "We are employed by the institutions, but we work for our patients!" She also said, "Conditions have continually deteriorated in these institutions over the last few years, and they are not going to get better. We have to have health care reform!"
Organized nurses in California have already passed a similar bill, and patient care has improved, according to organizer Amber Jamil. The hospital administrators fought to keep improvements from being enacted, and then they tried to get around the law by laying off ancillary staff, but Jamil said that nurses won that battle in court. Nurse Jan recalled being offered $30,000 to go to California and scab on striking nurses for only 21 days, but none of her friends took the offer!
The National Nurses Organizing Committee can be reached at 800-540-3603. Here are some more of their Town Hall meetings:
South Dallas, April 28, 11 AM - 1 PM, MLK Jr Library, 2922 Martin Luther King Blvd
McAllen April 30th: Times and Location to be announced
Harlingen, May 1, 7 PM - 9 PM Harlingen Public Library 410 76 Drive
Brownsville May 3rd 7 PM 9 PM Cunningham Manor Community Center, 2835 Rockwell Drive
Another organization, Healthcare
for all Texas , has called a rally at the State Capitol for 4 PM on Sunday,
April 29. The Conyers Bill, HR676, in the U.S. Congress has developed great
support. Senator Kennedy recently announced a new bill that would add younger
people to Medicare. The Texas Alliance for Retired Americans is solidly behind
health care reform.
--Gene Lantz, TARA Communications Director