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DMC Sinai Grace Hospital workers say they were told to leave after sit-in

Posted at 1:23 PM, Apr 06, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-06 17:24:15-04

DETROIT (WXYZ) — Nurses and other workers working the night shift at DMC Sinai Grace Hospital said they were told to leave after staging a sit-in overnight Sunday into Monday.

Sal Hadwan posted a video on Facebook saying they were told to leave, with another patient saying there were 25 COVID-19 patients for one nurse.

In a statement, a hospital spokesperson told 7 Action News: "We are disappointed that last night a very small number of nurses at Sinai Grace Hospital staged a work stoppage in the hospital refusing to care for patients. Despite this, our patients continued to receive the care they needed as other dedicated nurses stepped in to provide care.”

In the video, another nurse said there are nearly 25 patients to each nurse.

"Like all health systems in our area, the DMC is being seriously impacted by capacity issues related to COVID-19 patients. We have converted operating rooms, outpatient areas and recovery rooms into patient treatment areas to handle the surge. We are working on ways to mitigate capacity issues by moving patients from hospital to hospital within our system, to other area hospitals, and to increase our access to supplies and equipment," DMC responded in a statement.

"Nurses around the state are desperately doing everything we can to keep our patients and ourselves safe. Eventually, a tipping point is reached where the best thing any RN can do for their patients, their families, and their coworkers is to speak out rather than remain silent," Michigan Nurses Association President Jamie Brown said in a statement. "Until hospitals start taking the concerns of nurses seriously, it’s only a matter of time before more actions like these occur. It is absolutely essential that hospitals start working with nurses and stop silencing our voices."

7 Action News Reporter Jennifer Ann Wilson will have more on this tonight on 7 Action News.

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