Read: Analysis by PPF-PA Healthcare Worker

Article photo and heading "There is No Outside"

I WORK AT A NEW YORK SAFETY-NET HEALTH SYSTEM that serves poor folks who are mostly Black and brown. The primary-care clinic where I am a resident closed two weeks ago: like most major hospital systems throughout the US, the hospital has put a stop to all non-acute care, aside from telemedicine. Most of the primary-care doctors and other subspecialists who’d normally see patients for routine checkups have been drafted onto the frontlines, into the emergency rooms and hospital corridors of what professionals call “the inpatient setting.”

Until recently I was at home as a back-up, waiting to fill in when other residents got too sick to work. While I waited, numerous friends checked in on me—some of them even sent me masks in the mail. A number of those masks, like the ones solicited by my brother and gathered from his friends, are real N95 respirators. They’ll do some good for me and my fellow emergency room workers as our system continues to fail us and our patients. My sister made cloth masks, and those I hope never to need.

There is little certainty about how things will look inside the emergency room by mid-April, when mortality is projected to peak—much less in a month’s time. To read the full article, click here.

Statement to Philadelphia & Pennsylvania Government Officials: We Won’t Let You Leave Our People Behind!

Images of organizations that endorsed demands

PPF-PF joined with various organizations this week to call on our city and state government to do more: Our immigrant communities, the poor, and the working class have always been left out of emergency aid, public relief, and rehabilitation programs. We will not stand by and allow history to repeat itself. As such, we as organizations from Philadelphia and across the state have come together to demand more. We call on you to serve those who are sustaining the essential needs of our society during this crisis AND we challenge you to use this moment as an opportunity for transformation.

This global pandemic has revealed to the greater public the structural inequality of day-to-day life that our people have long known and experienced on a daily basis. The old normal was never enough for us. We refuse to go back to the old normal. We urge our city and state officials to work with us to develop a multi-faceted plan of relief that intrinsically addresses the root issues of poverty, criminalization, incarceration, and the lack of access to adequate healthcare.

This is a growing declaration and list of demands for longstanding change to ensure the health, wellbeing, and autonomy of all our people. We are here to lay the groundwork for long-lasting change. To read the full list of demands go here.

April 02, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact:
Clarissa O’Conor
717-203-4097

clarissaoconor@gmail.com
Philadelphia Healthcare Rights Committee, Put People First! PA

“Philly Can’t Wait! Re-open Hahnemann!” 

Community members, including healthcare workers, took action outside closed Hahnemann Hospital this morning to demand Mayor Kenney, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley and Philadelphia City Council seize and re-open the hospital, as COVID-19 cases top 1,000.

Normally bustling with commuters, North Broad Street was uncharacteristically quiet Thursday morning, as members of Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) gathered in front of the closed Hahnemann Hospital building, respecting the city’s ban on gatherings larger than ten people. Standing in two rows marked off by white crosses, each 8 feet apart, they demanded that Mayor Kenney, Philadelphia City Council, and Health Commissioner Farley immediately seize and reopen Hahnemann Hospital to care for COVID-19 patients. Protest participants carried signs that read “People Over Profit” and “Tell Joel Freedman: Stop Hoarding Hospitals.” 

As Philadelphia prepares for a surge of critically ill COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks, protestors highlighted the urgency of their demand. “We do not have time to waste,” local doctor and PPF-PA member Karim Nathan declared, “Unlike Boston and New York, we lack a public safety net hospital in Philly. A shortage of beds like we have seen in New York will strain every healthcare worker in Philadelphia. It will worsen the crisis. And it will cost lives.”

In answer to the legal and financial questions about a hospital takeover, Nathan clarified, “The city should not have to line Joel Freedman’s pockets with public funds,” he continued into the megaphone, “Philadelphia doesn’t owe Freedman anything. Our leaders must use all means at their disposal. They have a duty to reclaim Hahnemann before it is too late.” 

Nathan’s calls for reopening Hahnemann, as well as for production of PPE for frontline workers, free testing and Medicaid expansion to cover all Pennsylvanians were interspersed by a call and response chant of “Forward Together, Not One Step Back” and cheers. Protestors ended by singing together a variation of a labor movement song, “Rich Man’s House.” 

For more information of Put People First! PA’s response to the crisis and demands visit: www.putpeoplefirstpa.org/coronavirus.

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