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CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL
8 899 6RESOLUTION NO. C.M.S.
INTRODUCED BY COUNCILMEMBER KALB AND COUNCILMEMBER FIFE
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF HIGH QUALITY, EQUITABLE HEALTH CARE SERVICES AT UCSF CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OAKLAND
WHEREAS, founded in 1912,1 Children’s Hospital Oakland has served generations of East Bay children well regardless of background, race, specific medical condition, or ability to pay;and
WHEREAS, the vast majority of Children's Hospital Oakland patients come from Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, and San Joaquin Counties and the patient population at Children's Hospital Oakland reflects the demographics of the East Bay, including many immigrants and children from families of color; and11
WHEREAS, the 2014 Affiliation of Children’s Hospital Oakland and Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute with University of California San Francisco (UCSF) was touted as a collaboration of equals—a public-private partnership strengthening both hospitals, with Children’s Hospital Oakland retaining its identity and benefiting from additional financial resources111; and
WHEREAS, in recent years, the Affiliation has been seen as a “double-edged sword” with many Children’s Hospital Oakland caregivers seeing the implementation of said affiliation creating a weakened role of Children’s Hospital Oakland as both a safety net hospital and as a tertiary care pediatric center for the some of the neediest children in East Bay communities; and WHEREAS, as critical services have been adjusted, many of Children’s Hospital Oakland’s patients have been forced to travel to San Francisco for services that had been provided in Oakland for decades; and
WHEREAS, inpatient and surgical volumes at UCSF Oakland have gone down since the affiliation, while UCSF Children’s Hospital in San Francisco has increased significantly;iv and
WHEREAS, critical services and health care service providers in Oakland, including complex cardiovascular surgery, adolescent medicine, behavior and development specialists, pulmonologists, pediatric surgeons, MRI capability, neuro-oncologists, have been neglected or cut after UCSF took over the leadership and control of Children’s Hospital Oaklandv; and WHEREAS, costs to patients and families have skyrocketed, with devastating economic impacts often exacerbated by the loss of household income during the recent pandemic;VI and WHEREAS, since the affiliation, nurses, health care technicians, nurse practitioners, and physicians have strived to address these increasing healthcare disparities and costs, and have attempted to engage the UCSF leadership as partners with limited and inadequate success; and WHEREAS, some experienced and beloved nurses, doctors, and health care workers have chosen to leave UCSF Children’s Hospital Oakland for a better working situation at other Bay Area medical facilities; and
WHEREAS, one UCSF Children’s Hospital Oakland physician said, “I think they’ve come in in a heavy-handed way, removed our autonomy, and tried to fundamentally change the way we treat children.”vu
WHEREAS, the lack of success by UCSF management to fill vacant positions has exacerbated short staffingvm and called into question the remaining staffs ability to provide high quality care consistent with the Children’s Hospital Oakland’s long-standing reputation as one of the premier children’s hospitals in the country; and
WHEREAS, it is vitally important that any changes to operations that could result in degrading the purpose and obligations of our full-service safety net children’s hospital in the East Bay be avoided and only contemplated as a last resort after meaningful input from the community, policy makers, and hospital employees; and
WHEREAS, the transfer of financial resources from Children’s Hospital Oakland to UCSF in San Francisco can lead to racial inequity for East Bay families, where people with less access to resources also get more limited access to quality health care; now therefore be it RESOLVED, that the Oakland City Council respectfully urges UCSF Health, the UC Office of the President, and the UC Board of Regents to restore comprehensive high quality, tertiary care for all children at Children's Hospital Oakland locations; and be it FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council strongly encourages UCSF to create a Board and Executive Leadership Group for Children’s Hospital Oakland that is transparent and accountable to our diverse East Bay community and includes health care professionals/workers employed at UCSF Children’s Hospital Oakland; and be it 2 FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council requests and urges UCSF to create a health care system committed to correcting the inequities between San Francisco and Oakland— as well as the other East Bay and Central Valley communities where the overwhelming majority of Children Hospital’s patient population lives; and be it FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council invites UCSF to re-commit to respecting the views of and retaining nurses, doctors, and other health care workers who have dedicated their careers to care to serving children and families in our East Bay community.
IN COUNCIL, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA,
jan 18 miPASSED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE:
-8AYES - FIFE, GALLO, KALB, KAPLAN, REID, TAYLOR, THAO AND PRESIDENT
FORTUNATO BAS
PNOES
ABSENT -0~
ABSTENTION0
ATTEST:
City Clerk and Clerk of the Council of the
' City of Oakland, California
3137913vl/LL
' UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Fact Sheet:
https://www.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/fields/field insert file/BCH%200akland%20Fact%20Sheet O.pdf " 2020 UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Charity Care Report states majority of patients come from Alameda. file:///C:/Users/CBrown/Downloads/UCSF BCH OAKLAND CBR2020.pdf: comments by COO Jamie Phillips at Councilmember Kalb’s 3-10-21 town hall https://www.mercurvnews.com/2014/03/19/childrens-hospital-oakland-finds-safe-harbor-under-uc-san- francisco/
iv UCSF through its spokesperson denies this but fails to provide data to disprove observations of doctors and other staff; https://oaklandside.ora/2021/12/03/patients-workers-maintain-childrens-hospital-oakland- still-suffers-under-ucsf/
v Info from CHO doctors
vi https://oaklandside.ora/2021/02/25/childrens-hospital-oakland-ioined-ucsf-7-vears-aao-was-it-a-good- move/: https://oaklandside.org/2021/12/03/patients-workers-maintain-childrens-hospital-oakland-still- suffers-under-ucsf/
vii https://oaklandside.ora/2021/02/25/childrens-hospital-oakland-ioined-ucsf-7-vears-aao-was-it-a-aood- move/
CNAviii
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