MTA statement on the crisis caused by Steward Health Care
MTA statement on the crisis caused by Steward Health Care
MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy issued the following statement regarding the impact of Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy filing:
The members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association stand in solidarity with the families and health care workers harmed by Steward Health Care’s greed and profiteering that have jeopardized seven Massachusetts hospitals.
MTA educators join the members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association and 1199SEIU in demanding that state elected officials facilitate a plan that keeps all of the involved hospitals open and fully staffed.
Gov. Maura Healey took aggressive action to seize the Steward-run St. Elizabeth Medical Center, and similar bold measures must be replicated to keep open the other hospitals affected by Steward’s bankruptcy. The sale of several Steward-run hospitals is still far from finalized, and the pending closures of Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center are completely unacceptable. Governor Healey and elected officials representing the families and workers caught up in this debacle have an obligation to prevent a looming public health emergency. Closing Carney and Nashoba Valley will leave the residents around the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and in the Groton-Ayer area dangerously removed from crucial health care services.
The thousands of workers whose jobs are at risk because of Steward’s mismanagement and greed deserve robust and aggressive protection, especially since it is not just their livelihoods on the line but also the physical and mental well-being of their patients.
Steward Health Care System created a crisis in our Commonwealth. Elected officials must not only hold Steward accountable, but also ensure that health care jobs are protected through a process that results in Massachusetts residents throughout the state having sensible and effective access to high-quality hospitals.