Vol. 72/No. 7      February 18, 2008

On January 10 officials of Cathedral Healthcare Systems, managed by the Archdiocese of Newark, voted to have Catholic Health East (CHE) of Pennsylvania assume ownership of the three Catholic hospitals in Newark.

CHE announced that it would close two hospitals, St. James and Columbus, and put $100 million into improvements for the third, St. Michael’s Medical Center. The state of New Jersey has guaranteed a $250 million bond to pay for capital improvements and debt reduction.

Officials say the hospital closures are necessary because the three hospitals combined are losing $6 million a month. St. James and Columbus are the two smaller hospitals. At all three hospitals, 60 percent or more of the patients are uninsured or on Medicare or Medicaid.

Sixteen hospitals have closed in New Jersey in the last decade, four in the last year. Several others are in bankruptcy.

Two days after news of the closures, 150 people rallied in the Ironbound to demand that St. James stay open. The following week 700 attended a rally and march called by Newark United to Save St. James.

Speakers at the rally included doctors and nurses from the hospital along with priests from churches and members of the city council and state assembly. Remarks were translated into English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Many in the crowd indicated they have been using the hospital and doctor’s offices there for decades and it is only walking distance from their homes.

One of the organizers of the rally, Christina Hilo, announced that buses are being organized to travel to the state capitol in Trenton on February 7, the first day the legislature opens, to protest the hospital closing.

“We have to fight and not let them steal our hospital,” said Josephine Punla, a registered nurse who has worked at St. James for 35 years. “They are really robbing the community. Where are people supposed to go?”

When city councilman Augusto Amador said, “St. James is not going to close outright. All acute care services will be transferred to St. Michael’s and everything else is on the table,” crowd members began to yell, “We deserve all services!”

State assemblyman Albert Coutinho was booed when he told the crowd that many hospitals have closed, the hospitals are losing $6 million a month, and people “have to accept reality.”

Chanting and carrying signs that read “Keep St. James Open” in English and Spanish, the crowd marched to the hospital down the block, where a rally was held on the front steps. Workers inside leaned out windows and some came to join the spirited crowd.

After the rally, the group marched around the block and received a warm response from people who came out of their homes. “The past 20 years of cuts, privatizing of Medicaid and Medicare, and bleeding to death of services by both the Democrats and Republicans has led to this,” said Moses Williams, a retired x-ray technician and former member of District 1199J National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees who worked at both St. James and Columbus for five years. Sign-up sheets for buses to the February 7 rally in Trenton are circulating among employees at St. James, he said.

A report released on January 24 by the New Jersey Commission on Rationalizing Healthcare announced that more hospitals in the state will close. The report says the state will help those hospitals it deems “essential” and “financially viable” but others will close because of an alleged glut of hospital beds and an increase in outpatient centers.closing in New Jersey  
 
 
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