SEARCH

It’s time — long past time — to settle the St. Vincent Hospital nurses strike.

I’ve written about the strike before. The nurses said they walked to protect their patients and demanded better staffing requirements. To make their case, they produced a mountain of complaints, many verified by nursing supervisors, that documented unsafe patient conditions.

On Thursday’s Boston Public Radio, Dr. Eric Dickson described the current situation at UMass Memorial Health as “the perfect storm,” after its hospital system ran out of ICU beds on Wednesday — 18 months after the COVID-19 pandemic officially began.

Dickson is the President and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, which has hospitals in Worcester, Southbridge, Marlborough and Leominster.

FRAMINGHAM — Upon dropping her daughter off Tuesday morning at McCarthy Elementary School, Maureen Ferdinand reminded the 7-year-old girl, Clara, to pull her mask up.

Like many parents of young children, Ferdinand is eagerly waiting for the COVID-19 vaccine to become available to those younger than 12. She said she trusts what the schools are doing, but "they're kids and I have to tell her to pull her mask up over her nose every two minutes."

WORCESTER — In a letter to their striking colleagues on Wednesday, doctors at St. Vincent Hospital are imploring nurses to return to work to help patients amid a COVID-19 surge.

The nurses' strike, the longest such strike in state history, reached 199 days on Wednesday.

The nurses strike at Saint Vincent Hospital, which began in March, reached its 200th day on Thursday.

The hiatus between the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Tenet Healthcare began over staffing but now continues because of a return-to-work provision.

The largest hospital system in Central Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Health, ran out of intensive care beds Wednesday as critically ill patients with deferred chronic health problems and those stricken with COVID-19 overwhelm health care providers.

Dr. Eric Dickson, president and chief executive of the system, described the situation as dire, but said patients are getting the care they need. UMass has hospitals in Worcester, Marlborough, Leominster, and Southbridge.

Dr. Eric Dickson is weary. He says the hospital system he heads has reached a crisis point.

He's the president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, based in Worcester. He says the region has almost 20 times more COVID patients hospitalized than in June, and that as of Tuesday, there is not a single intensive care hospital bed available in central Massachusetts. When a bed opens, there's a patient waiting to take it.

WORCESTER, Mass. — Almost six months after becoming eligible to get it, Sarah Thorstenson was finally convinced to get the COVID-19 vaccine by her own eyes.

“Absolutely, if you would see these people -- if the people at home could see what’s going on in here -- there would be no doubt you would go an get the vaccine don’t wait until it’s too late,” Thorstenson said.

Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, called the current hospital system in central Massachusetts a 'crisis situation.' He said the ongoing strike between Tenet Healthcare and nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital plays a major role.

"We need to get those 600 nurses on the sidelines back to work," Dr. Dickson said. "Get those beds open."