A Message to our Members on COVID-19
Dear Doctor Council member:
We hope you, your family and your colleagues are doing as well as possible with all that is going on with the COVID-19 response dealing with this pandemic and public health emergency. We appreciate all you are doing every day, especially now, for our patients and communities.
Doctors Council is advocating for our doctors everywhere and continues to hold our workplaces accountable during this crisis. COVID-19 is a pandemic that will test the limits of our already strained healthcare system.
We have been in contact with many of you bringing feedback from the frontline doctors to your employers, CEOs, CMOs, etc. We are speaking with you and administration around the clock. We have also communicated with elected officials and staff about the needs of our members and patients.
Doctors Council has set up a COVID-19 Coronavirus Hotline available to our members 24/7. Please feel free to continue to contact us with any COVID-19 related issues, including clinical care issues, safety concerns and workplace issues, as well as your valuable input and feedback. You can contact us in any one of the following ways:
Call or Text to 917-624-0094 or Email info@doctorscouncil.org.
Our priority remains ensuring that our members have the tools, equipment, training, protocols and information needed to help keep themselves, their patients, and their communities safe. It is imperative that we serve as advocates for protecting the health of our patients, families, and communities.
Doctors Council members continue to staff the frontlines in the battle against COVID-19. The number of New Yorkers infected with the virus continues to increase. We are insisting that our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is up to standard. But concerns over depletion of N95s and other equipment is very real.
We are also addressing time and leave issues, such as how long a doctor is out when under quarantine or if he/she is positive, how long and how this will be paid, travel restrictions, impact on loss of vacation and CME days and other related issues. It is our position that, as a doctors’ union, we support responding to public health emergencies such as the coronavirus. It is also our position that because of travel and time and leave prohibitions, time and leave balances should be carried over into the next year and not forfeited – for example, any CME time and reimbursement amounts as well as vacation entitlements. Anyone who had approved leave that has to be cancelled should be reimbursed in full for any expenses that cannot be recouped. Moreover, anyone who is required to be isolated, quarantined or self-monitor at home should be afforded with paid leave time without charge to leave balances for such time, and anyone who is isolated due to having tested positive for the coronavirus should remain on paid status and not have any charge to their leave balances – receive time off with pay and without charge to leave balances for the workdays that fall within the period that they are symptomatic.
Doctors Council is here to advocate for and support you. In terms of COVID-19 we are coordinating on various issues in addition to those noted above, such as:
Doctors Council, and our staff and attorneys, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, still are working hard every day for our members in other areas, such as:
We will continue to be there for each of you and your colleagues in the days, weeks and months ahead. Let’s support each other and through our support get through this crisis together as best as we all can.
In Unity,
Frank Proscia, M.D. Aycan Turkmen, M.D. Kevin Collins
President 1st Vice President Executive Director