Layoff plan riles health care workers
By Linh Tat, STAFF WRITER, The Argus
Article Last Updated: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - 3:35:57 AM PST

NEWARK -- Employees at the Newark Health Center protested Tuesday against the Alameda County Medical Center's proposed plan to save money by eliminating more than 200 positions, including eight to 10 in Newark.

The proposed cuts are especially insulting, protesters said, because voters in March approved Measure A, a half-cent county sales-tax increase, to raise about $90 million a year for health services.

"Cuts in services just fly in the face of the voters and the spirit and will of Measure A," labor union organizer Marla Harvey said.

Vice Mayor Alberto Torrico, who is running for the state Assembly, also lashed out at medical center officials for ignoring voters.

"I am shocked and dismayed that after we have generated $90 million, that the first thing the county says to us ... is 'We're going to make more cuts,'" Torrico said at Tuesday's protest, which coincided with rallies in Hayward, San Leandro and Oakland.

"I'm opposed to the (medical center's) board of trustees washing their hands of this and turning to a company in Tennessee to tell us what California needs," Torrico said.

Cambio Health Solutions, a Tennessee-based consultant firm that the medical center hired for $3.2 million, proposed eliminating more than 200 of the center's 2,500 positions in order to save $12.2 million. The layoffs could affect workers at Highland Hospital in Oakland and Fairmont Hospital in unincorporated San Leandro, and at outpatient clinics in Newark, Hayward and San Leandro.

The cuts are necessary because the center has more employees on payroll than are necessary to meet patient needs, medical center spokesman Jeff Raleigh said.

"The voters voted to give money to the medical center so it could provide efficient and effective care. It didn't give money to the center so it could waste it. The management has to do what is proper," he said.

But health care workers question whether the Newark clinic -- which caters to low-income and uninsured patients -- can remain in operation if staffing levels are further reduced.

Individuals already wait one to two hours past their scheduled appointments to see a doctor because of the high volume of patients at the Newark clinic, said Carrie Robertson, a Hayward resident who visited the clinic Tuesday.

"If they cut people, patients like myself will not be getting the services that we need and deserve," she said.

A town hall meeting with representatives from the union, medical center and elected officials will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Information: (510) 932-5229.

Staff writer Linh Tat covers Newark for The Argus. She can be reached at (510) 353-7004 or ltat@angnewspapers.com.