Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will rally Monday in Center City against the planned closure of Hahnemann University Hospital.
The senator from Vermont will join hospital workers, city leaders, unions and community members outside the hospital to call on elected city, state and federal officials to keep the medical center open. The rally is set to kick off at 2 p.m.
“The group will also call for a transformation of the for-profit healthcare system and Medicare for All to ensure that a crisis like the one at Hahnemann never happens again,” Sanders’ campaign said in a news release.
This will not be the first time the senator has shown his support for Hahnemann workers. On Thursday, his campaign co-chair, Ohio politician Nina Turner, joined hundreds of people at a rally outside the hospital.
Hahnemann’s sudden closure announcement has become a flashpoint of controversy and upended the lives of both employees and patients, who fear the impact on the community as it potentially loses a medical center that caters to some of the city's poorest populations.
Both Philadelphia and state leaders have stepped in to try and halt the hospital’s closure, to no avail. On Friday, Hahnemann closed its maternity ward. Before that, it began diverting trauma patients to other hospitals.
Hahnemann’s owners, American Academic Health Systems, plan to completely shutter the medical facility in September.
