Below is a selection of great media coverage of yesterday’s Day of Action to Restore a full service hospital for the residents of Northern Berkshire County, which was hosted by the North County Cares Coalition, which includes the MNA. You can also view three videos from the event on YouTube.
TV 13 Coverage of Rally
North Adams residents demanding fair and equal access to health care
NORTH ADAMS, MA- One year after North Adams Regional Hospital closed suddenly, community members are demanding fair and equal access to health care services.
Saturday afternoon, dozens of people gathered outside North Adams City Hall to call on their elected leaders to give the area a full service hospital.Organizers say there is a strong feeling of injustice because Central County has a full service facility and South County has a national award winning hospital.
“We’ve sustained losses from factories and businesses, but this is the heart and soul of our community,” said Dick Dassatti….
View Full Story and Video: http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S3749665.shtml?cat=12415
Front Page Story in Berkshire Eagle
Advocates say Northern Berkshire full service hospital sustainable, deserved
PITTSFIELD — On the one year anniversary of the day North Adams Regional Hospital closed, about 75 former employees and union officials stood in the driving snow across North Street from Berkshire Medical Center to again plead for a full service hospital at the BMC Northern Berkshire campus in North Adams.
On March 28, 2014, many of the same folks were in the crowd of a couple hundred who stood chanting in the driving rain outside the main entrance of NARH desperately protesting the hospital’s closing.
Today’s focus was health care equity: The group now known as North County Cares Coalition contends that because southern Berkshire County has a hospital with more services than the bigger community in Northern Berkshire, and the central county region has BMC in Pittsfield, North County deserves the same level of health care….
View Full Story and Photo Gallery: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_27806410/advocates-say-full-service-north-county-hospital-sustainable
Lead Story on iBerkhsires
North County Group Lobbies for Hospital Reopening
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A group of dedicated community and union members continued to call for expanded medical services to mark the one-year anniversary of the abrupt closure of North Adams Regional Hospital.
Richard Dasatti of the North County Cares Coalition urged local and state officials — and the facility’s new owner Berkshire Medical Center — to reopen the facility as a full-service hospital.
"We will work with Berkshire Health Systems if they will provide a timeline and a commitment to make BMC North a full hospital with inpatient beds equal to their Fairview Hospital in South County," Dasatti said, adding that access to health care is a human right….
View Full Story and Photos: http://www.iberkshires.com/story/48839/North-County-Group-Lobbies-for-Hospital-Reopening.html
Story on MassLive.com
North Adams coalition promises ‘day of action’ to restore health care services on anniversary of hospital’s closing
NORTH ADAMS – Boosters plan to advocate Saturday for a the restoration of more health-care services at the former North Adams Regional Hospital on the first anniversary of the hospital’s closing.
The North County Cares Coalition, a group that includes members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, plans to gather outside North Adams City Hall, 10 Main St., at noon and caravan to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield for a 2 p.m. rally.
The trip is meant to dramatize how far some patients must now travel for some health care services, according to the coalition….
View Full Story: http://www.masslive.com/business-news/index.ssf/2015/03/north_adams_coalition_promises_day_of_ac.html
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