Registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente's San Rafael Medical Center are staging protests over the health organization's decision to lay off 42 RNs and NPs from its outpatient clinics, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) reports. According to a financial statement, these layoffs come despite Kaiser reporting a profit of nearly $13 billion last year. The cuts are particularly alarming to these health professionals, as they argue it will only prolong substantial wait times for patients seeking vital medical care and appointments for tests and procedures.
Employees like Colleen Gibbons, a medical-surgical RN at Kaiser San Rafael and the chief nurse representative, voiced strong opposition, stating, "It's absolutely unacceptable that Kaiser made $13 billion last year, yet is cutting staff," CNA/NNU reported. The layoffs are raising concerns about patient care and sparking debate on Kaiser's increasing reliance on telehealth services, which some nurses believe are inadequate substitutes for in-person examinations. Hunter Mills, RN in the Special Needs Department, explained, “The demand is greater than ever. The layoffs are actually all part of Kaiser’s grand master plan to keep pushing more and more patients to make do with telehealth, because it’s way cheaper for Kaiser to provide.”
Nurses from the affected clinics actively reach out to the community, organize local actions, and encourage concerned patients to contact Kaiser executives to urge a reversal of the layoffs. These efforts include flyering and media campaigns directed at Maria Ansari, CEO and Executive Director of The Permanente Medical Group, to rescind the job cuts, according to the information provided by CNA/NNU. The San Rafael center employs around 500 registered nurses, so the proposed layoff would substantially reduce the facility's healthcare staff.
Additional protests have taken place, such as the one yesterday afternoon, where over 100 people gathered, with one San Rafael nurse, Pam Cronin, attending the demonstration and expressing, "This multi-billion dollar corporation thinks that 41 nurses is going to solve some type of budget problem," a sentiment she shared when interviewed by SFGATE. However, Kaiser maintains that these staff reductions are in line with patient care needs and maintains that 400 open nursing positions across the market could potentially absorb the affected staff, according to a statement shared with SFGATE.
