MILWAUKEE — The Save Milwaukee Healthcare Coalition held a rally to continue the fight for better access to healthcare in the city.

What You Need To Know

  • The Save Milwaukee Coalition said they are fighting for healthcare access in the city

  • This was in response to Ascension closing its labor and delivery unit at St. Francis Hospital and Children's Wisconsin shutting down Next Door Pediatrics

  • A petition has been started in hopes of maintaining healthcare services in the city

  • Acension said the decision to consolidate labor and delivery services in Milwaukee has been beneficial for both our patients and care teams over the last year

This comes in response to Ascension closing its labor and delivery unit at St. Francis Hospital one year ago and Children’s Wisconsin shutting down Next Door Pediatrics in December.

Nadia Young is an ER Technician at St. Francis Hospital. Young is also a member of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals.

She believes the closing of their labor and delivery unit was the wrong decision.

“We still see people everyday requiring care during their pregnancy and we have also still seen births take place in our ER now,” said Young.

Young said that was the only place that offered this service on the south side of Milwaukee.

“Our hospital in particular overwhelmingly serves people in the zip code of our hospital,” said Young. “It is the immediate area around it. It’s a heavily immigrant neighborhood. It’s a lot of people that aren’t able to look elsewhere for that care. It’s a lot of people without even cars.”

That’s why several organizations, including the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals, MICAH, Reproductive Justice Action MKE and the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racial and Political Oppression united to form the Save Milwaukee Healthcare Coalition.

They have started a petition hoping to maintain health care services in the city.

“Hopefully bring forth a zoning process to make sure these nonprofit organizations can’t just close down services for a certain community or a certain zip code,” said Blake Jones of the Save Milwaukee Healthcare Coalition.

Young said she and the staff at St. Francis just want to provide the best care for their patients. She said that’s difficult without the proper resources.

“It’s not something that we are trained for,” said Young. “It’s also not something that we are not really able to be set up to be staffed for in my opinion. With a dedicated labor and delivery unit. You are staffed for the process of delivery.”

For Young and others in the coalition, they believe everyone should be able to get essential care from the cradle to the grave.

Ascension issued the following statement on the year anniversary of its closure of the labor and delivery unit at St. Francis Hospital.

“Our patients are always at the center of the decisions we make and we base our decisions on delivering the highest quality care to our patients. The clinical decision to consolidate labor and delivery services in Milwaukee was made following a thoughtful discernment process with our clinical and medical leaders, and it has been beneficial for both our patients and care teams over the last year. Ascension St. Francis hospital and its providers continue to provide our patients with women’s care services leading up to and following birth.”