St. Vincent Hospital In Worcester Reduces Services In Response To Months-Long Nurses Strike

A Massachusetts hospital is temporarily scaling back some services and reducing capacity in response to a strike by nurses that has now lasted nearly five months.

St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester said Wednesday the cuts are essential to maintain core health care services that are crucial to the community.

The hospital's roughly 800 nurses went on strike March 8, demanding better staff-to-patient ratios.

The hospital, owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, maintains that staffing ratios are in line with industry standards.

The nurses' union said it was dismayed by the hospital's decision.