SOURCE: Nurses sound off on upcoming spending cuts to healthcare during virtual town hall style meeting

A virtual meeting was held this week, consisting of various hospital figures and health experts from all around the North Country and focused on upcoming healthcare cuts.

This development is according to some of the latest from WWNY-TV.

The meeting dialed in on the expected impacts on local health care systems from various spending cuts at the federal level.

“North Country hospitals will have important choices to make, and we are here to demand that they center patients in those decisions,” Vicki Davis-Courson, who is with the New York State Nurses Association, said during the meeting.

Research thanks to New York State’s Nurses Association suggests that Medicaid hits pediatrics, especially.

Data shows that 47% of inpatients in the North Country aged 0-17 were covered by Medicaid in 2023. At Lewis County General (Lowville), it was 100-percent and meanwhile at Samaritan Hospital (Watertown), it was almost 40-percent.

Other topics were discussed during the virtual session, including system consolidation and the potential loss of select services provided across several North Country hospitals.

North Country News image.