PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Nurses and technicians from Wills Eye Hospital in Center City took to the street outside the facility on Wednesday, calling for better wages, better security and guarantees that if the hospital is sold, their contract is safe.
The nurses and technicians at Wills Eye have been working without a contract since Jan. 31.
“We are asking for a fair wage increase, as well as successorship,” said surgical technician Melinda Hayes, a member of the union’s negotiating team, “which is a language that talks about if the hospital was to ever be sold, or anything with things that happened at Hahnemann and Crozer and in different hospitals that were closed down because of for-profit entities.”
Hayes said she has been a surgical technician for 16 years. “When it comes to nursing and when it comes to health care, you can't pick who you're going to take care of,” she said.
“We're starting to see more patients that have more issues going on, if that makes sense, like they're not just here, they're here to get eye surgery, but they have other issues going on that we may or may not be able to address.”
As Hayes spoke with KYW Newsradio, behind her, two officers escorted a handcuffed prisoner out to a waiting police car.
“The hospital administration has committed to bringing on more security, but that was months ago, and we haven't seen that happen, so they have put it in writing,” David Peselli said, “but we would like to see that now accelerated.”
Peselli, a registration lead at the hospital, said the unguarded entryway from the parking garage is a particular vulnerability.
“There's no security staff on the seventh floor, and that's an entry point to the hospital proper to make it easy for our patients,” he said. “Obviously, after surgery, they need to get in the car and go home, but that also allows access to other people that don't necessarily belong there.”
KYW contacted Wills Eye for comment and has not yet received a response.