(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Community activists who are trying to keep Mercy Hospital from closing have opened a new battlefront against the hospital’s owners, Trinity Health.
Mercy Hospital, the first chartered hospital in Chicago, has always been a Roman Catholic institution. So, community leader Jitu Brown, says opponents of the closure are appealing to Cardinal Blase Cupich -- the archbishop of Chicago -- and Cardinal Wilton Gregory, a Chicago native.
They want the Cardinals to put some pressure on to keep the safety-net hospital open.
“We’re asking them to intervene to bring Trinity to the table and to push them to sell,” Brown said Tuesday.
Mercy has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and says in a statement that it is losing staff.
Dr. Anudeep Dasaraju, who has worked in Mercy’s ER, says he wants to “counter the narrative that doctors and nurses are leaving.”
“Doctors and nurses are being pushed out,” says Dasaraju, a resident at UIC.
Mercy Hospital says its final day of operation, except for basic emergency services, will be May 31.
The Chicago Archdiocese declined to comment Tuesday.
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