Newark Nurses Worry About Future Of Hospital’s Pediatric Unit
Taken from NJ Patch, June 12, 2018
By Eric Keifer
NEWARK, NJ — Administrators at University Hospital in Newark may be pondering changes at the busy medical center’s pediatric unit, and local labor groups, community leaders and nurses are worried about what will happen in their wake. However, a hospital spokesperson offered Patch a simple statement about the fate of the pediatric unit: “We are not closing it.”
On Wednesday evening, the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) union helped to spearhead a town hall meeting at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Newark to discuss “concerns for the future of University Hospital’s in-patient pediatric services.”
The Newark-based People’s Organization for Progress was blunter in their description of the purpose of the town hall: “Pediatric care has been closed at University Hospital! We must fight back!”
The HPAE posted the following message on their website prior to the meeting:
“As the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) continues to review a pending application to close pediatric in-patient services at the hospital, the town hall event is an opportunity for the community to raise their concerns and ask questions on the impact these decisions will have on patients and the community… After raising concerns with the NJDOH over the closure, the nurses and health professionals represented by HPAE were informed on Tuesday, July 3 by hospital administrators that pediatrics will remain open until the NJDOH issues a decision on the hospital’s Certificate of Need (CON) application. Nurses who had been given layoff notices were informed that those notices were being put on-hold pending the Department of Health’s decision.”