Healthcare workers plan to rally Aug. 25 in 11 California cities to support proposed state legislation that would ensure stockpile of new, unexpired personal protective equipment for use in the event of a pandemic or other health emergency, according to the union that represents them.
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, which has 97,000 members in California, said rallies are scheduled at hospitals including Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center and El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. Rallies are also scheduled at:
- Kaiser Permanente Stockton Medical Offices
- Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center
- Community Hospital in Riverside
- Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center
- Mercy Hospital Downtown in Bakersfield
- Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster
- Kaiser Permanente Orange County – Anaheim Medical Center
- Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside
- State Capitol in Sacramento
California PPE legislation, dubbed the Health Care and Essential Workers Protection Act, is currently before state legislators. The legislation would require the state to establish a pandemic-level PPE stockpile for healthcare workers and essential workers, and would require hospitals and other healthcare facilities to maintain a stockpile of an inventory of new, unexpired PPE for use in the event of a pandemic or other health emergency.
"We simply cannot fail to pass this legislation, and shame on us if we don't learn from the failures of the current pandemic," Liz Grigsby, a respiratory therapist at Kaiser Roseville Medical Center, said in a news release.
The California Hospital Association told Becker's Hospital Review that hospitals in the state are doing everything possible to ensure appropriate supplies of PPE for workers but continue to face challenges with the global supply chain for PPE.
The association said hospitals "are committed to working collaboratively with our partners at the local, state and federal levels to address these supply chain issues."