New York Nurses Fight for ERs, Voice Outrage Over Veto Threat

The president's words — uttered as he pledged to veto the bipartisan bill reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program — stunned nurses who staff the country's ever-more crowded and frenetic ERs and hospitals.

"I was outraged," said Diana Butsch, a Buffalo, N.Y., nurse, longtime activist in CWA Local 1168 and newly appointed health care campaign coordinator for District 1. "It's just ludicrous to think that people are going to get their health care that way, waiting hours and hours, coming in after they've delayed care because they couldn't afford to go to the doctor or couldn't afford even to take a day off from work."

For Butsch and other nurses in Buffalo, where a commission has recommended closing three to four hospitals and their busy emergency rooms — among nine threatened with closure statewide — Bush's remarks added insult to injury.

"I can't even imagine the chaos, because it's so chaotic now," Butsch said. She and Local 1133 President Peggy Chadwick-Ledwon described "stretcher patients" who line hallways in ERs because there's no other place to put them. "Sometimes patients are there three or four days waiting for a room," said Chadwick-Ledwon, whose local has 2,200 members at two Buffalo hospitals.

Local 1168 President John Klein said the irony of Bush's comment is that America's health care costs are skyrocketing largely because 46 million uninsured Americans have no choice for care other than ERs.

"We're fighting all these battles in health care: Health care costs are out of control. We've got the Berger Commission trying to close ERs. We've got insurance companies always trying to deny coverage. And then the president comes out and says something that asinine. What world is he living in?" Klein said. His local, also known as Nurses United-CWA, has 4,600 members.

The CWA-represented nurses have been leaders in the fight to save Buffalo's hospitals and their emergency rooms. The proposals to shut some down -- from a commission of businesspeople, insurance companies, bankers and doctors but no union representatives – were adopted by default at the end of 2006 when the legislature failed to act to stop them. Despite CWA's hard work, including press conferences, rallies, town hall meetings and support for legislation that would have reversed some of the proposals, preparations are underway to close the hospitals within one to five years.

But a lawsuit by the Catholic hospital and a plan submitted by the larger Kaleida system to keep one of their major hospitals open — a plan that embraced all of Local 1168's recommendations and would save most jobs — leaves some hope that the worst of the Berger Commission proposals will land on the cutting-room floor.

"We're not saying it lightly, but we believe people will die if the Berger Commission proposals are put in place  One of the closures will add a 25-minute ride to the nearest emergency room," Klein said.

Keeping emergency rooms open is only part of the battle. The critical shortage of nurses is another. A bill pending in the New York Legislature that has CWA's strong support would set a nurse-to-patient ratio for hospitals. Klein said nurses who should have three to four patients under their wing typically have 10 to 15 today.

"We call it M.A.S.H. nursing," Diane Butsch said. "It's like when that helicopter lands on M.A.S.H. and you hit the ground running and you literally don't stop. You look at the nurse's faces, and they are battle-weary. It's very disheartening."