A strike that would have included nurses from three local hospitals concerned about safety issues around pandemic H1N1 has been canceled, state nurses union officials said Tuesday.
Nurses from Catholic Healthcare West hospitals, which include Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, were planning to strike Thursday to protest what they said was a lack of preparedness for the swine flu.
Shum Preston, a spokesman for the California Nurses Association, said the federal mediator handling negotiations between the hospital chain and the union barred any communication with the media beginning Tuesday.
Up to 16,000 registered nurses from 39 facilities in California and Nevada were expected to participate in the one-day strike.
Among the three local hospitals, there are 663 nurses represented by the California Nurses Association. French Hospital spokeswoman Megan Maloney said it was difficult to anticipate how many nurses would have participated in the strike locally.
Nurses planned the walkout over the failure of hospital chains to assure adequate safety precautions for patients, their families, nurses and other health care employees in the wake of swine flu, according to a statement from the California Nurses Association.
Nurses at those hospitals said many facilities do a poor job of isolating patients with swine flu symptoms, according to the statement.
Every hospital in the county and Marian has recently begun implementing stricter visitor policies because of heightened concerns over the spread of swine flu.
Chief among the changes is enforcement of a minimum visitor age requirement of 16 and a policy capping the number of visitors to two at a time.
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@thetribunenews.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@thetribunenews.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
Be the first to know what's going on in San Luis Obispo County. Just tell us how you want to find out — we'll take care of the rest.
Sign up for breaking news alerts from SanLuisObispo.com and get the latest news sent to your cell phone via text message.
By signing up for alerts from this site, you are signing up for a program that may include up to 5 SMS text alert(s) per alert category per day. There is no service fee charged per month but your carrier's standard text messaging and other charges may apply. You may stop this subscription service at any time by sending the text message "STOP" to 72737. You must be at least thirteen (13) years of age to use our alert services. If you are between 13 and 17 years old, you agree that you have received parental permission both to complete the registration process and to receive SMS content on your cell phone. For help, send the text message "HELP" to 72737. This service will work with ATT, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, Alltell, US Cellular, Cincinnati Bell, Boost, Virgin Mobile USA, Celluar South, Telos, Centennial, East Kentucky Network, Cellcom, Immix and Rural Celluar.
E-mail »
Twitter »
Facebook »
iTribune »
Subscribe »
RSS »
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.