200 protest closure of St. Joseph's Hospital in N. Phila.

Roughly 200 people staged a loud, angry march tonight in the vicinity of St. Joseph's Hospital to protest next month's slated closing and layoffs at the longtime North Philadelphia health care facility.

Observers said that as many as 25 police cars lined the streets near the hospital at 16th Street and Girard Avenue, but there were no immediate reports of trouble or arrests.

North Philadelphia Health System, which owns the long-struggling hospital as well as the nearby Girard Medical Center, announced at the start of the year that as many as 675 people would lose their jobs with the shutdown.

Kevin Feeley, a spokesman for NPHS, said protesters crossed a line when they "tried to force their way into these facilities and tried to disrupt the operations of the two hospitals.  Frankly it put patients at risk. That's something we can't and won't tolerate."

Henry Nicholas, president of the National Hospital Workers Union and head of the local 1199C union that organized the protest, vowed that laid-off workers would sleep in the shuttered hospital's beds before a plan to build condos at the site could be carried out.

"We can't pay no rent without any jobs," Nicholas said.

- Valerie Russ