Photo by Roland Lizarondo

Above: Health care workers at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside rally in support of The Health Care and Essential Workers Protection Act, August 25, 2020.

At Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside Tuesday a small group of health care workers rallied in support of SB-275, also called the Health Care and Essential Workers Protection Act.

The state bill would mandate California have a three-month stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care and essential workers. PPE includes items like N95 masks, gloves, shields and gowns. The bill would also mandate health care employers to maintain new, unexpired PPE in the event of a state of emergency.

“We have to do everything we can to basically outfit them as they’re going to war and that’s not something that’s been happening,” said Mali Woods-Drake, a representative for Service Employees International Union at Tri-City Medical Center.

Woods-Drake said SEIU represents some 100,000 health care workers statewide.

“We have lost 14 already due to lack of PPE and this has been at different hospitals throughout the state,” she said.

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Tri-City staff said when the pandemic first hit, no one was ready.

“Everybody was scared. No one knows when the supply is going to run out,” said Lennie Pisco Garcia, a surgical technician at Tri-City Medical Center.

Pisco Garcia said having a constant supply of clean personal protective equipment is a lifeline for health care workers.

“I have my grandson who was born with a congenital heart defect, and so was my son in law. So if I don’t take care of myself here at work, I’ll take those viruses home and get them sick, and that would be detrimental to me and hurt me so badly,” she said.

Tri-City does have a stockpile of PPE and people at Tuesday’s rally commended the health-care system for “stepping up to the plate,” but they say it is not this way everywhere.

“Our government, our state, who’s going to support us when we run out of this stuff?” Pisco Garcia said. “And how are we going to do our jobs and take care of our patients and our community if we don’t have PPE?”

In a statement Tuesday Tri-City Medical Center officials reiterated their commitment to preparing for the worst.

“Tri-City Medical Center has worked tirelessly to appropriately safeguard our patients, community partners and frontline healthcare workers, including employees and medical staff with PPE throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so,” a statement from Tri-City spokesperson Aaron Byzak said.

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Matt Hoffman

General Assignment Reporter

I am a general assignment reporter for KPBS. In addition to covering the latest news and issues that are relevant to the San Diego community, I like to dig deeper to find the voices and perspectives that other media often miss.

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