NH Union Leader – December 17, 2024
By CONOR STOKES
MY NAME is Conor Stokes and I am a registered nurse who has worked at Hampstead Hospital for the past four years. As a lifelong resident of New Hampshire, I have committed myself to the care of some of our state’s most vulnerable residents. My wife, also a lifelong resident, joined me in this mission over a year ago as a member of the hospital team. We and our co-workers serve our neighbors, our friends’ children, and even our daughter’s classmates — children and families who depend on the specialized, compassionate care we provide at Hampstead Hospital.
Today, I plead for your assistance in addressing significant concerns regarding the proposed Dartmouth Hitchcock takeover of hospital operations. This proposal poses an existential threat to the care we provide and to the dedicated workforce that has kept this facility afloat despite immense challenges. While the proposal is being touted as a cost-saving measure to enhance patient care, my colleagues and I — those on the front lines — are deeply skeptical. Having reviewed the proposed contract, we find little evidence to support these claims, and instead, we fear that both patients and staff will be left worse off.
The patients we serve are among the most at-risk individuals in our state. Many come from homes scarred by generational trauma, mental health issues, substance abuse, or violence. Others have no family to support them at all. These are kids as young as eight struggling with thoughts of suicide, crippling anxiety, and unspeakable trauma. Their care cannot and should not be reduced to a line item on a budget. Saving these children — giving them a chance to thrive and contribute to society — requires investment, not austerity. Without adequate support, they are at risk of becoming trapped in cycles of poverty, incarceration, or homelessness as adults. We’re not ready to throw them away just yet.
Despite vague promises in the proposal to expand outpatient services and attract higher-quality staff, the contract itself offers little assurance that these goals will be achieved. Instead, the guarantees for current employees are alarmingly insufficient. The commitment to making “commercially reasonable efforts” to match our wages and benefits to those at comparable facilities is meaningless in a state where no comparable facilities exist. Even more concerning, the contract explicitly states that the benefits offered are not guaranteed to be “the same or substantially similar” to what we currently have.
This lack of specificity is deeply demoralizing. Many of my colleagues — dedicated professionals with a decade or more of service — are already exploring other opportunities. We feel as though we are being pushed out of roles we love, and the kids we work with are at risk of losing the stability and expertise we provide. The alternative model we have operated under for the past six months — where Dartmouth oversees medical and psychiatric care while the majority of staff remain state employees — has been effective. It has fostered strong relationships between leadership and staff, and not a single employee left during this transition. We are urging our state legislators to advocate for a continuation of this model rather than the deeply flawed proposal currently under consideration.
This is not just about our jobs. It’s about ensuring that the most vulnerable children in our state receive the care they deserve. The current contract falls far short of that standard. I implore you, we implore you to stand with us — your constituents and the families we serve — in demanding a contract that prioritizes patient care, supports employees, and reflects the values of our state.
Conor Stokes, RN, lives in Manchester.