Rally to rebuild UTMB

From the Inbox:

Texas State Employees Union / CWA Local 6186

News Release

Rally to Rebuild and Restore UTMB Galveston

Wednesday, December 17, 4:00 pm
Market St. between 10th and 11th Streets, Galveston

Contact: Myko Gedutis, TSEU, 713-661-9030
Dr. David Smith, College of the Mainland, 832-692-2306

UTMB employees, community members call on regents to rebuild, restore full services

Galveston, TX- Texas State Employees Union, and the Coalition to Save UTMB will hold a rally and press conference that will call on the UT Board of Regents to rescind their decision to close much of the UTMB hospital in Galveston. Speakers will call for the UTMB hospital to be rebuilt, and for full services to be restored.

The rally message will also be taken to the U. T. Board of Regents at their meeting in Austin on the following day.

Speakers and a full press packet will be available to the press at the rally.

Organizational members of the Coalition to Save UTMB:

Texas State Employees Union
Texas Faculty Association
Mainland Ministers Alliance
Galveston County AFL-CIO Central Labor Council

The TFA is the plaintiff in that lawsuit that was filed against the UT regents over the mass firing of UTMB staff. The point of all this - one point of it, anyway - is to put political pressure on UT and the State of Texas to reverse that decision and come up with the funds to keep UTMB and its associated hospital open and serving the needs of the community. (Another reason is to ensure that the laws regarding open meetings were in fact followed, as they should have been.) The thing to keep in mind is that what's happening in Galveston isn't just affecting Galveston.

With its 11 staff members holding back their tears, the popular Cervical Dysplasia and Cancer Stop Clinic in McAllen closed its doors for the last time on Friday.

In the morning, it was business as usual. Dr. Edward Hannigan, a visiting gynecologist from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, met with 15 women who needed specialist treatment.

Then, at 1 p.m., the front doors closed. But inside there was plenty of activity. Three workmen showed up and loaded medical equipment, computers and patient records into a U-Haul.

"We are all so saddened," said Cecilia Hinojosa, clinical director at the cancer clinic. "We are sad to be losing our jobs but we are primarily saddened for the patients. They received a service here they are not going to find anywhere else in the Rio Grande Valley."

Virginia Alaniz, an RN who has worked at the Cervical Dysplasia and Cancer Stop Clinic for 15 years agreed. "Some of the patients seem lost. They cannot understand why the clinic is closing. It is a great loss," Alaniz said.

Asked if there was anywhere else the patients could go, Alaniz replied: "I have done their case management for 15 years. I know there is nowhere else they can go. We were it."

The Cervical Dysplasia and Cancer Stop Clinic opened in McAllen in 1972. It has primarily served low-income women who do not have health insurance. According to UTMB, the clinic served 4,000 women over the last year. There was the breast cancer screening program, a Cancer Stop Shop where women, if they qualified, could get a pap smear, physical exam and mammogram at virtually no cost. There was a dysplasia service for cervical cancer patients. And there were cancer survivor support group.

No longer. The University of Texas System and UTMB decided to close the cancer clinic as a cost-cutting measure. They blamed Hurricane Ike, which struck Galveston this summer but not the Valley.

Health care in Texas is already substandard for millions of people. Can we afford to let it get worse? That's what this is all about.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on December 15, 2008 to Hurricane Katrina