Justice for SF Healthcare Workers

Justice for SF Healthcare Workers

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Long before COVID-19, healthcare workers in San Francisco's Department of Public Health were there for vulnerable patients in our community despite a lack of adequate staffing and other dangerous working conditions. In the last year, COVID-19 has blown those issues wide open and our city's healthcare infrastructure is in crisis. Enough is enough.

Long before COVID-19, healthcare workers in San Francisco's Department of Public Health were there for vulnerable patients in our community despite a lack of adequate staffing and other dangerous working conditions. In the last year, COVID-19 has blown those issues wide open and our city's healthcare infrastructure is in crisis. Enough is enough.

Stand with healthcare workers—sign our petition

We are calling on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Department of Public Health, and the San Francisco Health Commission to work directly with frontline healthcare staff to address the issues impacting our health, safety, and our patients.

Dear SF Board of Supervisors, the Department of Public Health, and the San Francisco Health Commission,

A year into the worst global health emergency in over a century, but the “healthcare heroes” at SFDPH are in crisis. The following occurrences are commonplace:

• Staff are systematically being denied breaks, which leads to exhaustion, errors, puts patients in danger, and creates unsafe conditions.

• Violent assaults against all healthcare staff are increasing in frequency and intensity.

• Staffing shortages are chronic and dangerous.

• Aggressive Human Resources practices increase staff anxiety and encourage the use of innuendo and misinformation as an investigative tool. This erodes morale and disrupts a safe working environment.

• Staff have legitimate fears of retaliation for patient advocacy.

• Workers are increasingly burnt out, demoralized, and abused to the point that it impacts our ability to care for others.

All of this results in turnover and the loss of experienced nurses. The above are indicators of lack of competent leadership, and patient care suffers when staff suffers.

While these issues spiral out of control, The Department of Human Resources (DHR) purposefully delays and manipulates hiring practices in ways that exacerbate understaffing, unsafe working conditions, and a hostile work environment. Management's only response to the staffing deficiencies they’ve created is to increase the number of temporary (TEX) employees and contractors—neither of which enjoy basic labor rights. This is unacceptable.

We are calling on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Department of Public Health, and the San Francisco Health Commission to work directly with frontline staff to address these issues. We are calling for:

1. Management accountability.

2. Permanent civil servants hired to end short staffing.

3. Reconciliation of hours worked compared to hours budgeted in all of DPH, in order to maintain a permanent safe staffing level.

4. The creation of three (3) seats on the San Francisco Health Commission specifically for frontline SFDPH nurses and staff members. DPH administration cannot continue to grade its own performance with no checks or balances to the system.

5. A follow-up meeting to the March 5, 2020 GAO hearing on SFDPH RNs’ claims against management. COVID delayed scheduling the follow-up meeting, now is the time.

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