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Dozens of medical professionals joined legislators including State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), State Representative Jason Doucette (D-Manchester) and State Representative Kevin Brown (D-Vernon) today calling for action to protect the continued operations of Manchester Memorial Hospital in Manchester, Rockville General Hospital in Vernon and Waterbury Hospital in Waterbury amid continued delays in the hospitals’ potential acquisition by Yale New Haven Health. Sen. Anwar, a medical doctor who provides care in hospitals around the state, noted there is increasing pressure on these hospitals amid Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., their parent company, imposing financial practices that could impact quality of care.
A delayed Certificate of Need process in the hospitals’ acquisition and closed-doors negotiations are further obscuring knowledge of how the potential sale is proceeding, speakers said. They noted some practices, including the activities of traveling nurses and technicians, have been potentially jeopardized by Prospect’s financial decision-making. Many professionals were decades-long employees of the Eastern Connecticut Health Network who warned about the potential community impacts of these hospitals’ care abilities diminishing – in addition to being a care network supporting 600,000 state residents, more than 3,000 jobs tied to the hospitals would be at risk in a closure.
“Things are moving in the wrong direction very fast,” said Sen. Anwar. “There are other hospitals in the country in Pennsylvania and New Jersey where Prospect took entire properties and sold them to real estate investment trusts, which charged unsustainable rents to the hospitals, some of which have been forced to close. Vendors have not been paid, with some services experiencing limitations. It’s a gradual process that puts patient care at risk. We are moving in a direction that could leave people without care. The well-being of patients is at the point of being threatened. We have a responsibility as the people who provide hands-on care to state that we stand united and will work closely together with everyone to allow Prospect to leave our state forever.”
“These are the people who provide healthcare in my community and I am proud to stand with them today,” said Rep. Doucette of the medical workers assembled. “These are the people who have been affected by the current untenable situation with Prospect and the never-ending Certificate of Need application. It’s been frustrating for me; I’ve been taking calls at all levels from concerned employees and patients for many months as the process continues to take so long. The CON process is broken – it should be focused not on the finances of the deal, but rather on what is in the public interest and what can improve the quality of healthcare for our residents. The situation with our hospitals has deteriorated over the last year due to all of the problems with Prospect. The fact is that for-profit private equity has no place in healthcare. The sooner we can get this transaction done, the sooner we can get Prospect Medical out of the state of Connecticut, the better. We need Yale to participate in helping to find a solution. The alternative is unthinkable.”
“In a community like the one I represent which includes Rockville, it is a socio-economically distressed community,” said Rep. Brown. “It needs the hospital for healthcare services. It’s a walkable destination for people in the community seeking care. Additionally, in my opinion, healthcare is a human right. We need to do what we can to help this process along and we need this to happen; I can’t imagine where we would be if any of these hospitals were to close. We need to prioritize this and treat it like the emergency it is.”
“In my role as President, what I have seen in the last few years is unbelievable,” said Dr. Dushyant Gandhi, president of medical staff at Eastern Connecticut Health Network. “To give some examples, patients are contacting me asking if their hospitals are getting closed. Colleagues of mine are not being paid for their services, and we’re not talking about late payment – in some instances, there are no payments. I have always enjoyed taking care of patients, but care is under threat due to non-payment, this is a bad situation. We need to be resuscitated as a medical office. Hopefully people in power hear this loud and clear and do what is best for the community we serve.”
“The best thing for healthcare in Connecticut is Yale taking over for Prospect,” said Dr. David Hill, who is a pulmonary critical care specialist at Waterbury Hospital. “No one who has spoken publicly has spoken against the deal [where Yale acquires these hospitals]. Since that time we have had a security breach and professionals have operated on paper. We have struggled to have supplies, to receive payment for services and to provide care, and I’m surrounded by dedicated professionals who just want to do their jobs, take care of their patients and make sure their communities are safe and well cared for. We cannot continue to operate in this fashion. All we want to do is do our jobs well.”
“We’ll all be glad when Prospect leaves the state of Connecticut,” said John Brady, vice president of AFT CT representing nurses and a retired emergency room nurse. “They have stripped these hospitals of resources and loaded them with debt. We want access to services to be protected and restored moving forward. For-profit hospitals have no place in Connecticut and I hope we can learn from that and move forward in that light.”
“While Prospect has put us in a chokehold, every single day I see doctors and nurses do their very best for patient safety and great outcomes despite our struggles,” said Anne-Marie Cera, a registered nurse and president of the Manchester Hospital nurse’s union. “I’ve been a nurse for 33 years; the community that we serve, our patients, our colleagues are our families. All my life has been spent taking care of patients; if the hospitals close, it will be an injustice that profit comes before patients.”
Caption: Sen. Anwar, center, speaks while joined by Rep. Brown (left, in navy suit), Rep. Doucette (right, in checkered jacket) and medical professionals
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