Dozens rallied outside Tufts Children’s Hospital pushing for it to stay open

BOSTON — Dozens rallied outside Tufts Children’s Hospital Saturday pushing for it to stay open.

Tufts Medical Center announced last month it will convert its pediatric beds to adult ICU beds starting July.

“We need to keep this open, we need to reevaluate the process and make sure we have a complete review of how the decision was made,” said Ed Flynn, Boston City Council president.

This rally of families and nurses – all pushing to keep the pediatric services open.

“The hospital’s pediatric beds have been filled up so often recently that staff is working overtime to keep up with the demand,” said Mary Havlicek Cornacchia, a nurse at Tufts Medical Center.

Havlicek says there’s a clear demand for the pediatric division.

Tufts announced it’s closing its children’s hospital a couple of weeks ago and transferring its pediatric patients to Boston Children’s Hospital, but many here worry about the diverse families who rely on this resource.

“We don’t have that many children’s beds here in the city many children’s hospitals, everyone’s gonna have to go to children’s Hospital over in Longwood and that’s going to increase prices,” said Ruthzee Louijeune, a Boston city councilor.

Tia Adamchuk was born at 24 weeks and became a patient at Tufts at five days old.

“I’ve been coming here since then and the people here are wonderful I love them and without the care that they’ve given me,” said Adamchuk. “There have been so many close calls when I was born, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

A spokesperson with Tufts Medical Center released the following statement Saturday:

“We understand and respect the passion of those who attended today’s event. We are committed to providing exceptional care and intend to continue extensive services for children on the Tufts Medical Center campus and in the community. This includes outpatient appointments with trusted Tufts primary care and specialty care pediatricians and nurses, day surgery, and one of the region’s largest, most-respected neonatal intensive care units. Our collaboration with Boston Children’s will ensure that when a child needs to stay overnight, they will have excellent care. Our intent is to ensure that children will be able to continue to see their same doctor/care team in the same clinic with their current insurance. We remain committed to supporting our communities and families with the same high quality, compassionate care they have come to expect and deserve.”

“I hope our faces and our stories will stay with them forever and continuously remind them of everything they’ve decided to decimate,” said Havlicek Cornacchia.

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