Mercy Hospital to Suspend Labor & Delivery Services
Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, in conjunction with the New York State Department of Health, will be suspending Labor & Delivery Services at the hospital beginning at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 29, 2021. Catholic Health will continue to offer Labor & Delivery Services at Sisters of Charity Hospital’s Main Street Campus and Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston.
While Labor & Delivery Services will be temporarily closed at Mercy, the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) will remain open to care for babies currently in the unit. The hospital will also continue to care for mothers who delivered prior to the closure for the duration of their hospital stay.
OB/GYN providers at Mercy Hospital will be contacting their patients to make arrangements for alternate delivery locations, including patients scheduled for inductions and C-sections tomorrow. All OB/GYN providers who have privileges to deliver at Mercy Hospital can also deliver at Sisters Hospital, and some providers may have privileges to deliver at Oishei Children’s Hospital. Maternity patients are asked to contact their OB/GYN provider for more information.
We believe these measures are in the best interest of our patients and community in light of the uncertainty regarding the potential strike. Any obstetrical patient who arrives at Mercy Hospital in active labor where delivery is imminent, will have their baby delivered at Mercy Hospital by their OB provider. Mother and baby will remain at Mercy for the duration of their hospital stay.
Mercy Hospital, as well as Kenmore Mercy Hospital and Sisters of Charity Hospital, St. Joseph Campus continue to negotiate in good faith with CWA for 12-plus hours daily to reach a fair contract with market-competitive wages and benefits. With CWA Local 1133’s strike at Mercy Hospital only days away and the parties tens of millions of dollars apart, the hospital has begun implementing additional steps to prepare for the union’s strike.
We are disappointed the union is heading down a path to take nurses and other essential healthcare workers on strike in the midst of a global pandemic and during a State of Emergency. Our focus is on maintaining safe, high quality care at all our hospitals and limiting disruptions to our patients and their visitors should the union follow through with its strike threat at Mercy Hospital.
