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WORCESTER — The head of the largest healthcare system in Central Massachusetts says the hospital bed shortage and staffing crisis at UMass Memorial Healthcare have reached a tipping point.

It’s time — long past time — to settle the St. Vincent Hospital nurses strike.

On Thursday’s Boston Public Radio, Dr. Eric Dickson described the current situation at UMass Memorial Health as “the perfect storm,” after its hospital system ran out of ICU beds on Wednesday — 18 months after the COVID-19 pandemic officially began.

The nurses’ strike at Saint Vincent Hospital reached 200 days on Thursday. It’s the latest milestone of a work stoppage that officially began on March 8 with nurses bundled up in frigid temperatures.

The largest hospital system in Central Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Health, ran out of intensive care beds Wednesday as critically ill patients with deferred chronic health problems and those stricken with COVID-19 overwhelm health care providers.

The nurses strike at Saint Vincent Hospital, which began in March, reached its 200th day on Thursday.

WORCESTER — In a letter to their striking colleagues on Wednesday, doctors at St. Vincent Hospital are imploring nurses to return to work to help patients amid a COVID-19 surge.

The nurses' strike, the longest such strike in state history, reached 199 days on Wednesday.

FRAMINGHAM — Upon dropping her daughter off Tuesday morning at McCarthy Elementary School, Maureen Ferdinand reminded the 7-year-old girl, Clara, to pull her mask up.

Dr. Eric Dickson is weary. He says the hospital system he heads has reached a crisis point.

WORCESTER, Mass. — Almost six months after becoming eligible to get it, Sarah Thorstenson was finally convinced to get the COVID-19 vaccine by her own eyes.

Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, called the current hospital system in central Massachusetts a 'crisis situation.' He said the ongoing strike between Tenet Healthcare and nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital plays a major role.

WORCESTER, Mass. - Every year, UMass Memorial Health collects unwanted firearms in exchange for gift cards, and now they're putting the guns they destroy to use.