Nurses and community members are rallying Sunday in Berkeley to protest Sutter Health's proposed closure of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, a Sutter Health affiliate.
The event, dubbed a "stroller brigade," will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Alta Bates Medical Center on Ashby Avenue. Pizza will be served, and there will be arts and crafts, stroller decorating and other children's activities, organizers said.
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, Ethel Long-Scott, Executive Director of the Women's Economic Agenda Project and Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto, an El Cerrito City Councilmember and RN, are among the speakers, according to the California Nurses Association, which organized the event.
"The medical center is the city's only acute care medical facility. Shutting it down would not be good for patients," said Martha Wallner of National Nurses United.
