Vermont Business Magazine On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of healthcare professionals, community members, and legislators lined main roads at Central Vermont Medical Center and the Mad River Family Clinic in a display of public opposition to the UVM Health Network’s recently proposed cuts to essential patient care services.
The Network’s plan would close Central Vermont Medical Center’s Inpatient Psychiatry unit, two primary care clinics and multiple rehab therapy clinics in Central Vermont, dialysis centers in Newport, Rutland and St. Albans, the kidney transplant program at University of Vermont Medical Center, as well as limiting emergency, after-hours surgeries at CVMC, and decreasing UVMMC’s overnight capacity by 50 beds, among other cuts.
As Mad River Clinic staff member Barry Bolio said in a statement, “We have over 600 people on a waitlist to get primary care at our clinic. These are people coming from Burlington, and other far away areas, to try to get care because they can’t get it elsewhere. The administration is proposing we move all our patients and staff to other Family Medicine Practices, one of them being the Waterbury Family Medicine Clinic, where there’s already a 550-person waitlist and existing patients can’t get an appointment for months. How is this going to work? It’s not a viable plan.”
The Inpatient Psychiatry unit at CVMC holds 14 beds and provides care to people in mental health crises. Sue Becker, a psych nurse who’s been at CVMC for 26 years, stated that, “The plan for the closure of CVMC’s Inpatient Psychiatric unit would devastate mental health care in our community. More patients will end up in Emergency Departments with nowhere to go, thereby increasing wait times and delaying care for critically ill patients. It’s an unacceptable decision, and the UVM Health Network needs to figure out a different path, one that is actually accountable to its mission to care for our communities.”
At today’s event, Nicole DiVita, Certified Ophthalmic Technician at UVM Medical Center and AFT Vermont President of Healthcare said, “We’re not going to stop mounting pressure until these cuts are reversed. We are standing together for our patients, our staff, and our communities.” Public actions will continue in the weeks to come.
Protests outside CVMC in Berlin Thursday. AFT Vermont photo.
Central Vermont Healthcare United is a union of over 500 Nurses and Technical Staff at Central Vermont Medical Center.
AFT Vermont represents 10,000 healthcare and higher education professionals at the Central Vermont Medical Center, UVM Medical Center, University of Vermont, the Vermont State University, Bennington College, Porter Medical Center, Community Health Centers of Burlington, Planned Parenthood of NNE and Brattleboro Medical Center. https://AFTVermont.org
Source: 11/21/24 AFT Vermont.
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