Mothers from the St. Luke’s Hospital Community To Lead Candlelight Vigil Wednesday as Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit Closes

Sutter Continues Closures at St. Luke’s—Was Only NICU South of Market

Mothers and babies in the St. Luke’s Hospital community will lead a candlelight vigil this Wednesday, February 13th to mark the closure of the neo-natal intensive care unit at the facility—and the loss of life-and-death services that patients depend on. 

They will be joined by nurses and doctors from the facility, as well as by elected officials, patients, community members, and civil rights activists, all of whom have been outraged by the attempts of Sutter Health to close the only private hospital serving the medically-underserved southern half of San Francisco.

What: Mothers Lead Candlelight Vigil to Mark Closure of Key Pediatrics Unit
When: Wednesday February 13, 5:00 p.m.
Where: St. Luke’s Hospital, Cesar Chavez @ Valencia

Jane Sandoval, an RN at the facility said, “Sutter is degrading patient care by closing unit after unit at St. Luke’s.  Do they expect women with high-risk pregnancies to take a cross-town bus?  They are abandoning the families who depend on this hospital.” 

NICU is the latest unit that Sutter has closed at the hospital over the last two years, following the psychiatric unit, one of two floors of the medical-surgical unit, and evening shifts in the post-anesthesia recovery unit.  Sutter’s institutional master plan for St. Luke’s calls for it to be shuttered as an acute-care hospital by 2010, with patients sent to other facilities north of Market.  Studies have shown that a significant portion of medically underserved communities will not make this trek, with the effect of allowing Sutter to stop serving the poorer patient population in the St. Luke’s neighborhood. 

Reflecting the widespread outrage that Sutter Health’s plans have drawn, the rally will feature members from an impressive coalition of groups that have come together to save St. Luke’s Hospital and stop Sutter’s cuts. Attendees will be drawn from the Coalition to Save St. Luke’s Hospital, which includes Senior Action Network, United Healthcare Workers-West, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, PODER, Dolores Street Community Services, Global Exchange, La Raza Centro Legal, Excelsior Action Group, Grey Panthers, Day Labor Program, Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, Mission SRO Collaborative, and the California Nurses Association.