'Save Our Hospital' Demonstration Planned Outside Mayo Clinic In Rochester
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A protest is planned outside Mayo Clinic in Rochester Thursday afternoon after the hospital announced that it will move some services from its hospital in Albert Lea, to Austin.
Starting in October, select services like intensive care, labor and delivery, and inpatient surgery will move to the Clinic's hospital nearly a half an hour east in Austin.
The switch is expected to impact about seven patients per day, but with a severe staffing shortage and a decline in hospitalizations, Mayo Clinic says it has no choice.
The hospital claims about 500 patients visit the Albert Lea location every day for things like doctor visits, dialysis and cancer care and they will not be impacted by the change.
Still, some patients in Albert Lea do not want to see some services move more than 20 miles away and will board buses from Albert Lea to Rochester Thursday afternoon to demonstrate in front of the Clinic's headquarters.
The rally is set to begin at 2:30 p.m.