Basebuilding near Crozer-Chester: We Demand Our Hospital Back!
On Saturday, June 14, Put People First! PA members from the Southeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee held a People’s clinic outside of a grocery market and went door-to-door in the neighborhood around the shuttered Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland.
Put People First! PA members talked to people of all different backgrounds who’ve been directly impacted by the closure of Crozer-Chester and Taylor Hospitals, including elderly people, people with children and many others, some of whom were born at the hospital or have been using the Crozer system their entire lives.
We heard devastating stories of family members saved in the major burn unit at Crozer-Chester and heard from a firefighter who doesn’t know where firefighters who suffer burns on the job are going to be treated. We heard from local healthcare workers whose stomachs’ ache every time they hear ambulances in the neighborhood because they know there’s a high chance that the person will not make it to the next nearest hospital. We heard of how the closure is threatening small businesses including local food stores and eating spots in the area, due to a dramatic reduction in business. We heard of lives already lost because of the hospital closures, of how people are terrified of their families getting sick or having an emergency, and of folks having to wait months for new doctors appointments for children and elderly patients or travel 30 minutes or more for doctors.
Everyone we talked to was devastated and outraged. Everyone agreed that the community needs its hospitals and that the closure of Crozer and other hospitals is a crime. We talked with folks about how every community deserves good and decent hospitals, primary care and other services that ensure our human right to healthcare. Everyone agreed that we need to come together to fight for our right to healthcare and to demand that our leaders take greater action, including demanding that the government take the hospitals over.
On Wednesday evening, members and new contacts joined together in Put People First! PA’s monthly Statewide Call about hospital closures statewide. People across the state shared stories of the impacts of hospital closures, how we’ve fought back and what more we need. The joining together from people from all different regions was another powerful step in building the movement against hospital closures. We will not be silent anymore.
How have you been impacted? What do you believe our communities need? Join us to take action.
- Base-building, hospitals, Southeast PA
- base building, crozer chester, door knocking, hospital closures, people's clinic, sepa, southeast pa