[Hartford, CT] - State employee labor leaders and local elected officials are reiterating their shared vision for UConn Health as a growing independent system combining top quality research, instruction and clinical services. They are responding to today’s release of a report on the facility’s fiscal health by the corporate-oriented Cain Brothers, a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets, an out-of-state investment banking firm with a vested interest in hospital consolidations.
Almost despite its best efforts, that report supplies further evidence of the critical role Connecticut’s only remaining public acute care hospital plays in mitigating the negative effects of hospital consolidations. And it reinforces the fact that UConn Health is a premier acute care, cutting-edge research and top tier instruction. Connecticut has the opportunity to invest in our only public hospital, research facility, medical and dental school to create a new future for an affordable and accessible public health system.
“The clinical, research and academic professionals at UConn Health deliver a vital and unique public good,” said Bill Garrity, RN, who worked as an emergency department nurse at the university’s John Dempsey Hospital. “This latest report backs up what we’ve proven time and time again; the quality, access and affordability of UConn Health’s services are unparalleled. Expanding this public good is in everyone’s interest,” added Garrity, who serves as president of University Health Professionals, AFT Local 3837.
“We strongly support the idea of investing in UConn Health as a public institution and expanding the services we provide,” Laura Haynes, Ph.D., professor at the facility’s Center on Aging. “The details of how this is done, of course, requires further exploration, and we look forward to having these conversations and collaborating with patients and other members of the community, UConn Health administration, and elected leaders to ensure UConn Health remains a public hospital for the public good," added Haynes, who serves as president of UCHC-AAUP/AFT Local 6747.
“State elected officials must continue to focus on addressing the healthcare needs of underserved communities,” said Coventry Town Council Chair Lisa Thomas. “UConn Health plays a unique role in the lives of patients who face obstacles to receiving care, and through robust investment we can further develop our last public hospital,” added Thomas, an activist with the Windham United to Save our Healthcare (WUSH) coalition.
Click here for the coalition's recent op-ed in The Courant on the public good of expanding UConn Health.
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The State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) represents about 45,000 state employees across 35 bargaining units. Members of the coalition’s individual unions work in a wide variety of State agencies, serving Connecticut citizens in many areas that affect all of our daily lives; public health, social services, education, public safety, environmental protection, criminal justice, transportation, corrections, and services for the blind, and developmentally disabled.
