Nurses To Picket Hospitals In Santa Clara County

GILROY, CA -- Nurses will picket today at two hospitals in Santa Clara County to demand that the facilities stay open as full-service acute care facilities even though the non-profit health system that owns it is being sold.

Registered nurses plan to picket from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy as their owner Verity Health System is being sold following bankruptcy.
O'Connor Hospital is at 2105 Forest Ave. and St. Louise Regional Hospital is at 9400 No Name Uno.

"We are rallying to make it clear that as nurses we are committed to continuing to serve our community and we want Verity to keep their commitments to the patients we serve," registered nurse Maria Canonizado said
in a statement.

"Our expectation is that any new buyer will retain all acute care hospital services with absolutely no bed closures and that they will honor our contract and all pension obligations and retain the health care workers
who have committed themselves to our community for all these years," she said.

Both hospitals were bought by Verity in 2015 and at that time the California attorney general imposed conditions on the purchase, including that the hospitals would operate as acute care facilities offering emergency services through 2025.

Verity also agreed to avoid putting existing jobs or pension benefits at risk. Nurses said that Verity has announced that it has chosen a purchase offer from Santa Clara County and the offer says future employment
is "provisional" and does not say whether acute care services will continue.

Nurses will be calling on the judge overseeing the sale to mandate that the future owner or operator of the two hospitals fulfill the conditions set forth by the attorney general in 2015.

A town hall meeting was held Wednesday on the future of Seton Medical Center in Daly City, a facility also owned by Verity.

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