This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA.
As required by state law, AHS executives published a list of the proposed closures and elimination of services they are planning in the ongoing layoffs. This 59-page document includes the elimination of outpatient behavioral health services, the closure of many other departments, and a reduction in services throughout AHS. The document repeatedly insults essential healthcare workers by referring to the elimination of their positions as “rightsizing” instead of calling it what it is: short-staffing and a danger to patient care.
In addition, state law requires that healthcare executives provide a plan for where patients can seek care after the services they depend on are eliminated. The list makes it clear that there is no viable plan for these patients once their services are cut. For example, the elimination of the Health Advocates program, which assists 3,300 patients a year to secure food and housing resources, is to be replaced by telling patients to look up resources online. People who are unhoused and being discharged from the hospital need real help navigating the complex and overburdened web of social services, not handed a website address as they’re kicked out the door!
Over 50 times throughout this document, AHS executives state that the layoffs will not affect patient care because the work will be “absorbed” by remaining workers. So get ready to be even more overworked and short-staffed, because that is the official, published plan.
The list of closures is available on the AHS website, along with a link to submit a public comment. Make your voice heard and attend the Beilenson Hearing where you can speak to the county supervisors about what these cuts mean to you!
Click here to read the article printed in the 02-18-26 Highland Healthcare Newsletter
