(VOORHEES) – Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt (D-Camden), chairwoman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, issued the following statement Thursday after the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) announced earlier in the week that students would be facing double-digit tuition increases in the fall:

“New Jersey faces a shortage of doctors and nurses bordering on crisis levels and patient access to primary care physicians is dwindling daily. In the face of these problems, the logical solution would be to make it easier to become a doctor or nurse in the state.

Organized labor officials and NIOSH's research council criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's plan to back off last year's call for use of N95 respirators to protect health care workers from the flu, saying the proposal is a retreat from the agency's stance following the outbreak of the H1N1 virus last year. Meanwhile the American Hospital Association (AHA) endorsed the respiratory protection changes.

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Chairwoman Loretta Weinberg and Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham which would require privately-owned hospitals to report more financial information to the public was approved by the health committee yesterday by a vote of 7-0, with one abstention.

At the request of the company purchasing Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center, the Town Council passed a resolution Wednesday requesting that the state agencies reviewing the sale approve it quickly.

MHA, LLC, a Newark-based group of private investors, filed paperwork in February to purchase the hospital from LibertyHealth, the nonprofit entity that currently owns the facility.

MANNINGTON TWP. — The National Labor Relations Board recently dismissed charges filed by the attorneys for the parent company of The Memorial Hospital of Salem County against the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union and pro-union nurses, according to a news release issued by the HPAE on Monday.

Hospital spokesman George J. Gennaoui declined Tuesday to comment on the matter.