Nurses from Memorial Hospital Bakersfield warn that without the Grossman Burn Center, the closest care would be about 100 miles away, and they say that delay could cost lives.
Burn unit nurse Lindsay Goodrick was one of many who gathered outside Memorial Hospital Bakersfield holding signs reading “Patients First” and “Some Cuts Don’t Heal,” calling on leaders to keep the Grossman Burn Center open on May Day.
“Our unit represents years of experience that cannot simply be recreated overnight,” said Goodrick.
Protests first began in February, after nurses received notice that the unit would be closing.
Dignity Health says the Grossman Burn Center will shut down on June 30th, mainly because the center has been consistently showing low patient volumes.
If it closes, burn patients would instead be treated in the emergency room, something ER nurse Denira English says raises serious concerns.
“We get enough of these burn patients that they need to keep it open. We can’t keep them in the emergency room. We cannot, we’re already stretched thin with other patients and now we have to care for these patients that need more care that we can’t give satisfactorily,” said English.
Without the center, the nearest burn unit would be in Fresno, nearly 100 miles away.
For Kacey Robinson, whose daughter is a burn survivor, the thought of not having local resources is terrifying.
“I know the implications of what this means, I’ve met many families that don’t have burn centers in their hometown that have actually had to relocate and I’ve always had so much sympathy for them so to hear that was happening here was devastating,” said Robinson.
But concerns aren’t just about travel time — it’s about timing.
“They’re closing it right before the 4th of July, that's when from what I’ve heard from registered nurses thats actually when they see a lot more pediatric patients coming in due to the fireworks,” said Labor Representative for registered nurses at Memorial Hospital Kenia Rivera.
In an email obtained by 23ABC News, Dr. Peter Grossman writes in part:
“While today is marked by disappointment, it is also marked by gratitude—for our team, for our patients, and for the years we were able to serve this community. And let me be clear: the need for burn care in this region does not disappear with this decision. It is our hope that, in time, burn services can once again be restored to serve Bakersfield, Kern County, and the Central Valley.”
Nurses have also created a petition calling for a pause on the closure, which has gathered more than 1,700 signatures.
Organizers say they were not able to deliver it directly to the CEO, but did meet with hospital leadership and say the concerns were formally presented to administrators.
Even though a closure date has been confirmed, nurses say they’ll continue fighting until the end, hoping to create a better outcome.
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