During September 23 Press Conference, Baystate Noble Nurses to Announce Community Survey Results and Upcoming Virtual Forum on the Future of Noble Hospital

WESTFIELD, Mass., Sept. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- During a socially distanced press conference outside the hospital on September 23, the registered nurses of Baystate Noble Hospital will announce the results of a survey of more than 460 community members and an October 6 virtual community forum.

The community survey and forum focus on how nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the community are responding to staffing cuts and service eliminations at Baystate Noble Hospital, which have made it harder for patients to consistently receive the safe, high-quality and timely care they deserve.

RN Press Conference
When: 12 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23
Where: Nurses will gather outside the entrance to Noble Hospital at 115 W. Silver St., Westfield.
What: Nurses will release details of a survey completed by more than 460 community members and announce an October 6 virtual community forum about the future of Noble Hospital.
Why: Baystate Noble nurses are concerned about the future of their community hospital. Baystate closed the intensive care units at Noble and Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer last August, and has announced a second for-profit partner to open a new mental health facility and close the Fowler Unit at Noble as well as all the mental health beds at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield and at Wing Hospital. Last fall, Baystate also merged Baystate Noble's 2N medical-surgical unit with telemetry and cut the majority of 2N staff.

"We are calling on Baystate Noble President Ron Bryant to participate in our October 6 community forum and address the growing concerns nurses and community members have about patient care conditions," said Paul Dubin, RN and Co-Chair of the MNA Baystate Noble Hospital Committee. "Many of us are extremely concerned about the future of Noble Hospital because of Baystate's cuts to staffing, its elimination of essential services, our longer ED wait times and excessive boarding, and Baystate's plan to close our mental health unit. We want President Bryant to be transparent about his vision for the hospital."

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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association