Governor Baker’s budget proposed to cut $3.5M from the Tewksbury Hospital budget- eliminating 12 beds and nearly 50 employees.
The House Ways and Means budget restores funding ($4M), but without specific protective language, there is nothing to stop the Baker Administration from moving ahead with eliminating beds and staff.
What can you do to help?
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Contact your State Representative. You can find contact information here: http://capwiz.com/massnurses/home/
- Thank your Representative for restoring the funding that Governor Baker had tried to cut.
- Urge your Representative to support Representative James Miceli’s Amendment #437 to prevent any reduction in services at Tewksbury Hospital.
If this protective language is not included:
- There will be an additional burden on the patients and their families
- The quality of care will be diminished
- It will result in higher costs. The beds slated for closure by Governor Baker are geriatric beds, which means that these patients would most likely be transferred to nursing homes- at a much higher cost.
- Patients will have nowhere to go. Some of these patients, nursing homes would not even be an option due to the patient’s complex medical needs or significant mental health needs.
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