As the L.A. Times editorial board urged early in the pandemic:
“…in a public health emergency, medical workers have the right to speak out without fear.” |
Dear 121RN Members:
Can you take a moment to sign a petition? We are urging the California Attorney General to put a stop to retaliation against Nurse whistleblowers at all three HCA hospitals.
There’s never been a more important time in our nation for Nurses to speak out about what’s going on inside our hospitals. And there’s never been a time when the nation paid so much attention to what you’re saying.
When Nurses at Riverside Community Hospital, Los Robles Regional Medical Center and West Hills Hospital and Medical Center spoke out about dangerous patient safety violations…
THE HOSPITALS RESPONDED WITH HARSH RETALIATION:
- At Riverside, the hospital wasted no time retaliating against its Nurses after our 10-day strike for safe staffing. Within a week of the strike, the hospital violated the Nurses’ Union contract and announced the elimination of the Charge Nurse position throughout the hospital. Many of the Charge Nurses were among the whistleblowers, alerting their hospitals, regulatory agencies, and the public of numerous Title 22 violations. Over 70 complaints were filed against RCH in 2019, additional ones in 2020 and dozens more at West Hills and Los Robles. Additional Cal/OSHA complaints have also been filed.
- The pattern of retaliation started at the beginning of the pandemic. Nurses were threatened with discipline for insisting on wearing masks. Some were suspended for using their social media pages to ask the community for PPE or alerting colleagues that the hospital failed to notify them of exposure risks, as legally required.
This has to stop.
Please sign the petition today and ask Attorney General Xavier Becerra to investigate, intervene and remedy these dangerous practices that put Nurses and Licensed Healthcare Professionals in jeopardy and delay our communities’ recovery from this pandemic.
In Unity,
Rosanna Mendez
Executive Director, SEIU Local 121RN