Care New England announced the closing/down-sizing of Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in Pawtucket on October 17, after a pending sale to a California based health care company fell through, but details about the closure have been scant. Now, during an informational picket Monday afternoon, members of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP), Local 5082, are saying that Care New England is being negligent in not offering a detailed plan for the health services and jobs it says it wants to maintain at at the hospital.

“The people of this community and the health professionals who serve them deserve to know what, if any, health services and jobs are going to be maintained by Care New England at the Memorial campus,” said Rita Brennan, RN, president of UNAP Local 5082. “Our request for detailed information has been met with little more than empty rhetoric and it’s time Care New England executives came clean about their plans for Memorial.”

UNAP Local 5082 represents approximately 150 registered nurses, social workers, pharmacists, laboratory technologists and other health professionals at Memorial
Hospital. The picket lasted from 2 to 4:30pm.

Here’s a copy of a flyer picketers were handing out to passers by: