Nurses & Patients Deserve Safe Staffing
Kenneth Samet, President & CEO of Medstar, and John Sullivan, President of WHC
Nurses at Medstar Washington Hospital Center in DC need your help!
Nurses at Washington Hospital Center (MWHC) are planning to go on strike on Monday, December 22 to demand that MedStar address patient safety at the hospital.
"We have raised serious concerns about safe staffing and clinical practices but we have received no serious response from hospital executives. Patients’ lives are at stake,” said Washington Hospital Center RN Mindy Blandon. “Nurses are forced to take this action in order for hospital managers to negotiate in good faith about issues of health, safety, and equity.”
Watch the video and sign the petition to show your support!
Nurses in DC Go on Strike from Beth Geglia on Vimeo.
Petition by
To:
Kenneth Samet, President & CEO of Medstar, and John Sullivan, President of WHC
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Kenneth Samet, President & CEO of Medstar, and John Sullivan, President of WHC:
The nurses at Washington Hospital Center are standing up for their patients and their community. As a member of that community, I fully support them in their demands for safe staffing in the hospital and for equitable pay. If I have to be hospitalized, I want to be sure that my nurses are not stretched too thin to be able to take care of me. When WHC refuses to provide safe staffing, the hospital puts me, my family, and my community at risk.
WHC nurses are fighting for my health and safety, and they are part of our DC community. Many of the nurses are from DC, and have cared for DC residents at WHC for decades. I want them to be able to remain in the community, and that means making sure that they get cost-of-living salary adjustments they need. Our community hospital should help keep the community together—not further the displacement of the very nurses who care for and protect us.
In your recently-unveiled ad campaign, you claim that "each day is a new opportunity to save another life." Yet Medstar is threatening WHC nurses with a 10-day lockout in retaliation for a one-day strike they have announced they will carry out to protect their patients. Staffing the hospital with scab nurses for ten days will put patients directly in harm's way, and runs counter to your claim to care for patient lives. As a DC resident, I ask you to reconsider. Go back to the bargaining table. Demonstrate to DC that you care about our community and our health, just as our WHC nurses have done.