FACTS:
Operations were rescheduled, chemotherapy treatments were canceled and other procedures deemed “non-urgent” were postponed as tens of thousands of health care workers nationwide began to strike Wednesday.
In what union leaders call the largest health care worker strike in U.S. history, more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees across five states walked off the job this week, demanding better working conditions amid failed contract negotiations.
The strike, expected to last three days in some areas, affects more than 40 Kaiser Permanente hospitals and medical office buildings in California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.
The majority of striking workers are in California, where Kaiser Permanente, the country’s largest nonprofit health care organization, is based.
Disruptions left patients in the state reeling.
In Sacramento, toddler Caden Young had been scheduled to undergo ear tube surgery Thursday after suffering from recurring ear infections, but the operation was postponed Tuesday until December “because of limited staff,” said his mother, Tiffany Young.
“That was really upsetting,” she said, adding that the procedure would relieve her 17-month-old son’s pain, help drain out liquid in his ears and reduce how often he would have to take antibiotics.
Lisa Schnaidt, patient, said the oncologist at the facility said tough decisions had to be made because of understaffing.
“The people who have a chance at a cure were left on the schedule, and the people who have a chance at possible surgery down the road were left on the schedule,” she said the oncologist told her.
“Neither applies to my husband,” she said. “That tells me ‘you’re not worth it today.’ I can understand it, but I can’t accept it.”
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