Chicago nurses, union members march for racial equity in health care

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Nurses, health care workers and community activists marched on Chicago's West Side Saturday to call for racial equity in health care.

The march and caravan began in the Illinois Medical District and ended in Douglass Park.

They're calling for the city to defund the police department and use the money elsewhere.

"Defunding policing means refunding social services and providing critically needed resources for public health, mental health services, and other public services," union officials said in a statement Saturday. "In the third largest city, in the richest country in the world, there is a 30-year life expectancy difference between Chicago's affluent and mostly white Streeterville neighborhood and the impoverished and mostly Black Englewood neighborhood, nine miles away."

The marchers said the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the disparities in health care delivery and outcomes.