FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Media Contacts:

Edgar Saavedra: esaavedr19@yahoo.com, 773.627.8706. Vanessa Sausedo: mexicaxica@gmail.com, 773.814.9914


Stroger Hospital Patients, Community, and Employees Rally against Discriminatory Cuts

Group Fighting to Save Public Health Care in Chicago


Chicago, IL – There is a fight to save public health care playing out in Chicago. It has parallels around the country as the economic crisis has led to severe cuts in public services. In solidarity with recently announced service cuts and layoffs at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital (formerly Cook County hospital) the new Chicago-based movement, UP, Stroger patients, Cook County residents, labor unions, and hospital employees, will rally to demand Cook County uphold its mission statement[1].

The rally will take place in front of Stroger Hospital (at W. Ogden Ave and S. Damen Ave) at 4PM, Wednesday, November 4, 2009. Patients, physicians, nurses, medical support staff, in addition to Cook County residents will join the group. The County health system cares for 35% of all cancer patients, 40% of HIV cases and 8% of very premature babies, among other things, while receiving less than 5% of the health care dollars spent in the Chicago metropolitan market.

As the 2009-10 budget battle unfolds under the new independent board, the Health System CEO, William Foley, announced this year’s cuts, including elimination of obstetrics and pediatrics altogether from the County Hospital. Other aspects of the Strategic Plan presented at a series of town hall meetings include: (1) Eliminating all inpatient services at 2 (Provident and Oak Forest hospitals) of the system’s 3 hospitals, (2) Selling off remaining Cook County primary care clinics to private federally qualified health centers, (3) Charging a $10 co-pay for every clinic visit at the remaining county hospital facilities (plus another for their prescriptions), and (4) eliminating 900 unfilled positions.
Hospital workers, patients and community groups turned out in force at the public hearings and speaker after speaker denounced the cuts as deadly. Speakers pointed out that 82% of the County system’s patients are African-American or immigrant. A 74-year old woman read a letter from her husband, a patient on the chronic ventilator unit at Oak Forest Hospital slated for closure, praising the care he had received over 15 years and asking the authorities not to pull the plug on his care. “Murderer!” was heard from the back of the hall as more and more speakers attacked the Foley’s ‘Strategic Plan.’

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System, consists of three hospitals and a dozen clinics. “Our patient population is already the most vulnerable, disproportionately affected with preventable chronic diseases with poor access to health care. The board’s decision to further dismantle our system while simultaneously charging our patients co-pays will inevitably increase these disparities and in my opinion is a racist attack.  These are even harder times for our patients and so we need an expansion of services not a shrinking of services,” said Felipe Findley, a Physician Assistant at Stroger Hospital.

Following the rally, a town hall will take place on November 18th at 5PM at 845 S. Damen, Room 165.

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UP is an education and action-oriented movement that builds itself on the autonomous and collective strength of marginalized communities. UP works to identify the connections between issues that affect all oppressed people, to develop strategic and tactical educational material, promote leadership, build alternative spaces and encourage and increase community participation and ownership. For more information, please see www.upmovement.org

[1] John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital Mission Statement: To provide a Comprehensive Program of Quality Health Care with Respect and Dignity, to the residents of Cook County, regardless of their ability to pay.