Firemen’s Park in Ocean Grove. August 12, 2018 Blogfinger photo.
Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC
I challenge any of you who knows nothing about the underlying meaning of this sign to guess what it is about. I am no fan of big corporate control of healthcare, and you can look up my resume of fighting corporate raiders who tried (and succeeded) in taking over and closing my community hospital, Dover General Medical Center, about 20 years ago.
But I also despise propagandists who twist the truth, exploit our reliance on quality healthcare, and mislead the public about such important issues.
This sign gives the impression that Hackensack Meridian is somehow striving to harm patients in the interest of money. Many of us, including Blogfinger, might sympathize with such an implication because we have seen the bottom line supersede quality care in corporate-run healthcare facilities; on Blogfinger we often pursue that theme, but to exploit the goal of excellent patient care in order to garner sympathy for union power is abhorrent.
HPAEW is the Health Professionals and Allied Employees Union which is fighting HM over a new contract, and mixed up in the muddle is the idea that HM is reducing staffing to save money, resulting in a reduction in quality, and only an agreement with HPAEW will counter that effect.
I don’t know what the truth is, but that sign above, makes my skin crawl because it is so deceptive and phony. Most of you, like myself, admire healthcare workers including nurses, and perhaps if they laid out their argument with the truth, they might score points with the public, but the sign above is manipulative and disrespectful to those who otherwise would likely support the HPAEW.
These days we see a lot of fake news in the media, and this propagandist sign, seems cut from the same cloth.
BEVERLY KENNEY:
Those pocket heavy CEO’s should have to spend time as a patient while they wait for a nurse who is tending to many other patients.
Thanks for bringing the sign to my attention. I went to the website listed on the sign and learned a lot about Hackensack’s corporate practices.
A corporation that allows for 2 nursing assistants on a floor with 64 patients (a story highlighted from one of the union CNA’s* on the website) while paying its CEOs over 8 million dollars clearly isn’t prioritizing patient care.
*CNA is a certified nursing assistant.
Blogman,
I know it is against the law to post anything on utility poles. Do you know the ordinances concerning posting signs on “public lands” such as Firemen’s Park?
I would assume protected speech would be less restrictive on one’s own property.
Another thought: Is it permissible for a passerby to remove such signs? There are many signs in Ocean Grove including advertisements for products. These serve to diminish the quaintness of our lovely town.
Lot’s of questions today.
Perhaps readers will provide clarification on these issues.
Editor’s note: Paulie: What little I know about this pertains to our Town-wide Yard Sale. You can post a flier on public spaces, but they have to be mounted on wire stuck into the ground, like the one shown in this post,or a grounded metal holder; not like the good old days when we could communicate by stapling anything to a wooden pole.
However, although it is illegal to post fliers on telephone poles, sometimes the rules are bent, such as the pink ribbon advertisements for Jersey Shore mammograms. Exceptions are also made for public service announcements or missing cats.
In my opinion, laws should be enforced equally for everyone, so if a missing cat can be posted on a pole, then next time I lose my keys, I will make an announcement where Paulie D can see it, because he is all over town. –Paul @Blogfinger