Nurses, Ministers, Patients And Commissioners Hold Vigil For Safe Patient Care

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 08 Nov 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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Registered Nurses represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) will hold a vigil Thursday to bring attention to the failure to restore the 2007 nursing cuts, and further elimination of nursing positions in the primary care clinic network.

WHAT: Vigil and Press Conference featuring County nurse leaders, ministers, patient advocates, and Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin.
WHERE: Fantus Clinic (in front of Stroger Hospital - Ogden and Harrison Avenues)
WHEN: 4:30pm, November 8, 2007

The President's proposed 2008 budget fails to restore the 2007 nursing cuts. The budget rejects 109 of the 136 nurse positions requested by medical departments and further cuts nurse staffing in the Ambulatory clinics. Most critically, the budget fails to restore 13 Advanced Practice Nurses to the clinic network, including Fantus. These decisions, made by administration bureaucrats, are destructive of patients' vital healthcare resources and they are fiscally irresponsible.

NNOC has introduced a "patients' budget" in response to the President's political budget. Our patients' budget consists of two components.

The first component would be an amendment, sponsored by Commissioner Suffredin, which honors Dr. Simon's request to rebuild the Bureau's primary care mission through the restoration of the 07 nurse staffing cuts.

The second component of our patients' budget addresses County's credibility and fiscal deficits - which we see as one and the same. County has a credibility deficit with taxpayers and with many of the Commissioners that represent them. This credibility deficit is blocking meaningful progress on raising needed revenues at the County level. At the same time County has a credibility deficit with leaders in Washington and Springfield that help secure critical Medicaid and Medicare funds.

The solution to the Bureau's fiscal crisis resides not just with County taxpayers and the Commissioners, but equally with political leadership at the state and federal levels. The Bureau of Health cannot survive without this support. The way to restore the credibility deficit was laid out by President Stroger's own blue-ribbon committee two weeks ago. NNOC agrees with its recommendation for immediate trusteeship and it's conclusion that County's "crisis cannot wait for an evaluation and debate over alternative governance structures."

NNOC/CNA is the nation's largest union of direct-care RNs, with some 70,000 members in all 50 states.

http://www.NNOC/CNA.net