Public Employee Press

de Blasio reverses Bloomberg shutdown
Bronx maternity unit will reopen

After months of rallies and pressure by a union-community coalition against the Bloomberg administration's closing of the maternity ward at North Central Bronx Hospital, the city Health and Hospitals Corp. announced March 17 that it will reopen NCB's delivery and neonatal intensive care units in late summer.

The coalition included DC 37, the state Nurses Association, political leaders and health-care advocates.

"We applaud the de Blasio administration and HHC for restoring the delivery and neonatal services," said Local 420 Treasurer Corey McCaskey. "Disrupting these services took unnecessary risks that jeopardized mothers and babies," said DC 37 Field Services Director Barbara Edmonds.

HHC abruptly shuttered the maternity and neonatal units in August. The clos ings - part of a series of extensive health care cuts - forced expectant mothers to travel farther to Jacobi and other Bronx hospitals to deliver their babies.

Prior to the closing of the NCB's maternity ward, its staff safely delivered 1,400 babies a year, 10 percent of all infants born in the Bronx. Reopening the birthing and neonatal units will lessen wait times and overcrowding at several Bronx hospitals.

About 30 Nurses Aides, Patient Care Techs and Clerical Aides in DC 37 Locals 420 and 1549, along with doctors and nurses from the two units, will return to NCB and keep their job titles and seniority, Edmonds said.

"We live and work here in the North Bronx community and have developed strong bonds with the patients we care for," said NCB Local 420 Chapter chair Ethel McMiller. "As dedicated public servants, we will continue to work to make sure that the thousands of mothers and babies we deliver can once again receive the quality health care they deserve."

The union is committed to working with HHC to restore services, and get the city, state and federal funding needed for adequate staffing at public hospitals and clinics.