State regulators fined Children's Hospital Oakland $10,350 on Tuesday for safety violations that include inadequately protecting employees from violence in its emergency department. The hospital has had several dramatic incidents in recent months, noted the Cal-OSHA citation. —Contra Costa Times, 02/22/11 More »
A group of Wisconsin lawmakers blocked passage of a sweeping anti-union bill Thursday by ignoring orders to attend a vote. Instead, they left the state to force Republicans to negotiate over the proposal. —Associated Press, 02/17/11 More »
When I saw the cut to the low income energy assistance programs proposed by President Obama in his budget, I knew that meant more energy/utility shut-off notices for people already struggling all over the United States. The cold day in hell has arrived for many patients and many caregivers who already find their budgets bursting from the costs of healthcare insurance, co-pays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket medical expenses, and their bank accounts strained from the loss of income and unemployment that has marked recent months for millions and millions of people. —GuaranteedHealthcare.org, 02/16/11 More »
Over 3,000 student nurses and midwifes have taken part in a rally at the Department of Health in Dublin today in protest at Government plans to phase-out and ultimately eliminate payments for their mandatory 36-week placement in hospitals. —Irish Times, 02/16/11 More »
Hospitals reduced the number of beds in their internal medicine departments on Tuesday, so none of them would have more than 120-percent occupancy. The Health Ministry’s policy change resulted from protests last month by the Nurses Union, which threatened not to admit any patients to the departments if they had to lie on beds in corridors, and that they would walk out of their jobs if this occurred. —Jerusalem Post, 02/16/11 More »
More than 10,000 Wisconsinites marched on the state Capitol Tuesday, as crowds rallied in cities around the state, students walked out of high schools and public employees lined roadways holding aloft banners declaring their determination to battle an attempt by Republican Governor Scott Walker to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights and pack state government positions with political patronage appointees. —The Nation, 02/15/11 More »
The nurses at Tufts Medical Center say recent staff cuts are putting patients at risk, and they cite more than 520 reports of “incidents that jeopardized patient care in the last year.” Care is being dangerously compromised, they say, due to: “delays in nursing assessment, delays in the administration of medications and tests, nurses missing significant changes in patients’ health status…patients falling due to lack of assistance with getting up and moving around and patients being left in soiled beds for hours at a time.” —Commonhealth, 02/15/11 More »
By Senator Bernie Sanders - Social Security is the most successful social program in American history. It shouldn't be privatized; its benefits shouldn't be cut; and the retirement age shouldn't be raised. Before Social Security was established 75 years ago, more than half of our elderly population lived in poverty. Because of Social Security, the poverty figure for seniors today is less than 10%. —Los Angeles TImes, 02/14/11 More »
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's proposal to strip public employees of most collective bargaining rights, cut pay and gut benefits without any negotiation [1] the most radical assault yet by the current crop of Republican governors on the rights of workers has inspired outrage in a historically progressive and pro-labor state. —The Nation, 02/13/11 More »
Peter Shumlin, the newly elected governor of Vermont, has a plan for health-care reform: Rather than repeal it, he wants to supercharge it. His state will set up an exchange, and then, as soon as possible, apply for a waiver that allows it to turn the program into a single-payer system. —Washington Post, 02/10/11 More »
Ireland - Student nurses and midwives are to press ahead with lunchtime protests over Government plans to cut their pay as industrial trouble-shooters hear their case. —Irish Times, 02/08/11 More »
An invitation-only political retreat for rich conservatives, run out of the spotlight for years by a pair of Kansas billionaires, became a public rallying point for liberal outrage on Sunday, as 11 busloads of protesters converged on a resort in the Southern California desert. —New York Times, 01/30/11 More »
President Barack Obama's apparent willingness to consider cuts in Social Security benefits may be winning him points with Washington elites, but it's killing him with voters, who see the program as inviolate and may start to wonder what the Democratic Party stands for, if not for Social Security. —Huffington Post, 01/19/11 More »
Survey research suggests that, while Americans are overwhelmingly supportive of health-care reform, they are not sure the reform cobbled together by President Obama and the last Congress is the proper fix. According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, the country is divided three ways 33 percent for complete repeal of the measure adopted last year, 35 percent for partial repeal and 30 percent for no repeal. —The Nation, 01/19/11 More »
Two people have already died in Arizona and another 96 are waiting for a life-saving transplant they may no longer be able to afford after the state slashed money reserved for the procedures. One lawmaker said Arizona is now home to "death panels." And those whose names were on the list, those who will surely die without a transplant, found themselves in a state of disbelief. "It's a shock to me," said Randall Shepherd, who thought he would receive Medicaid funding for the heart transplant he needs. —CNN, 01/07/11 More »
In 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life. Eventually Memphis heard the grievances of its sanitation workers. And in subsequent years millions of public employees across the nation have benefited from the job protections they've earned. —Huffington Post, 01/05/11 More »
Health care reform was a big job in 2009, and it paid very well for some executives: Nine of 12 CEOs of health care trade associations made $1 million or more. Lobbyists at the associations received compensation ranging from $250,000 to more than $1 million. —Politico, 01/05/11 More »
In February, about 175 nurses rallied in Tallahassee, complaining that they often have too many patients to properly look after them all. Clad in red scrubs and coats, the nurses asked for a law creating specific nurse-patient ratios at health care facilities throughout the state. —St. Petersburg Tiimes, 12/28/10 More »
Scores of nurses demonstrated in front of Watsonville Community Hospital Thursday, protesting what they say is the hospital's practice of employing so few nurses and medical assistants that patients are receiving substandard care. —Santa Cruz Sentinel, 12/23/10 More »
Though officials from both the nurses union and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital indicated the aversion of Thursday’s planned 24-hour strike was still possible, neither side sounded like that possibility was a strong one. —WILKES-BARRE, 12/22/10 More »
