Watsonville Community Hospital nurses plan town hall about threatened labor and delivery, postpartum, and NICU shutdowns

Nurses say potential closures are latest serious risks to communities in Watsonville and Santa Cruz County

Nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital (WCH) in Watsonville, California, will hold a Care Not Cuts Town Hall on Saturday, October 24, to warn community members about the potential decision to close the neonatal intensive care, labor and delivery, and postpartum units, a major shutdown of all birthing care services at the facility. Nurses at Watsonville are represented by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU).

Who: Nurses from Watsonville Community Hospital and Santa Cruz County

What: Care Not Cuts Town Hall about birth care shutdowns

When: Saturday, October 24, 2026, 12:30 to 2 p.m.

Where: E.A. Hall Middle School, 201 Brewington Ave., Watsonville, California.

Near the end of September, the Pajaro Valley District Health Care Board of Directors that oversees Watsonville Community Hospital held a special board meeting. At that meeting, the Board and senior hospital administrators discussed a vote to close the Women's and Children's Services department, arguing the units in the department were not profitable and that closing these essential services was necessary to save the hospital.

Watsonville nurses were joined by community members and pediatricians to speak out about the dangers the closure would pose to vulnerable mothers and newborns, including the risks of maternal and infant emergencies that would still occur with or without the skilled registered nurses and physicians specialized to treat those patients.

"Registered nurses know all too well that some cuts don't heal," said Annabelle Covington, RN in the Watsonville labor and delivery (L&D) unit and Watsonville resident. "Nurses are sounding the alarm, and that is why we are organizing our community to attend our Care Not Cuts Town Hall this Saturday: To warn neighbors that closing these essential services will have put some of our most vulnerable patients in danger. Nurses' bottom line will always be our patients, and we will never be silent when moms and babies are put at risk. A hasty decision to close these essential medical services is too high of a cost for our community and county to pay."

WCH administration made the decision to close the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in early July. The removal of these vital NICU medical services (alongside other unsafe changes to critical care, medical/surgical, and telemetry units) has left community members further from life saving care. The sudden closure of the NICU continues to put the lives of newborns at serious risk, serious risk that will only expand with L&D and postpartum unit shutdowns..

The only other full service acute care hospital in Santa Cruz County is Dignity Health Dominican Hospital. The patients will be expected to either use the facilities at Dominican or transfer newborns to a facility in neighboring Monterey County or as far away as the Bay Area due to the Watsonville NICU closure, potentially jeopardizing life-saving care during transport.

Vulnerable communities, including agricultural workers who rely on WCH, will be left without access to maternal care services in their vicinity should the Watsonville administration and Pajaro Valley District Board of Directors decide to permanently close the NICU, continue the merger of medical surgical and telemetry units, or close the critical care unit services. CNA union nurses are taking a stand to ensure equal care and access is maintained.

CNA represents approximately 300 registered nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital and is an affiliate of NNU.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.