Doctors Council SEIU has announced our endorsements for the NYC June 2021 Primaries to lead in healthcare and move us forward through COVID-19. 

We believe in quality care for all, addressing the issues that impact our patients and communities, and standing up for working families and union members, especially dealing with COVID-19.

Our members know the importance of doctors’ having a voice in politics, policy and legislation, especially with elected leaders.  Endorsements are part of this vital work for our members, those we care for and the communities we serve.

This year, we collectively feel that our endorsements are especially important – we have seen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last year and how this has impacted the patients we care for and the communities we serve.  As doctors who work on the frontlines treating all patients every day, it is important to us as doctors that our patients receive quality health care when they are in front of us. It is also important that the inequities and social determinants of care that impact so many communities are addressed.

Read here for our full list of endorsements and announcement.

Dear Doctor:

Thanks for being part of our COPE (Committee on Political Education).  We had a good Doctors Council COPE Advocacy Meeting and Training that we held the end of April.  It was great to see so many doctors on the video call.

Many of you have shared positive feedback which is appreciated.  We are glad that you found the presentation useful and informative.

As was requested by many of you, please see below the video recording of the presentation.

In addition, here is the PowerPoint that we used and that you can also see by clicking here.

Please remember, as you know, the importance of doctors’ having a voice in politics, policy and legislation, especially with elected leaders.  We work in coalition with other unions and community organizations.  We have been especially active the past months advocating for doctors and those we take care of.

If you would like to be active in our COPE, please email us at info@doctorscouncil.org.   We encourage doctors to be involved on legislative and policy issues, political action and community engagement.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope you join us in this vital work for our members, those we care for and the communities we serve.

Please keep safe and well.

In Unity,

Frank Proscia, M.D.                 Kevin Collins
President                                   Executive Director

Know Your Pension

Dear Doctor:

We had a very large and engaged group of members attend our Know Your Pension presentation by NYCERS earlier this month in May.  There was great participation in the excellent presentation.

It is important to know that when the City eliminated pension benefits for any employee who is not full-time, including part-time employees and hourlies, Doctors Council went to court to challenge and fight against this.  We won in New York State’s highest court and our victory was extended to all part-time and hourly employees through legislation.  To this day, these employees and doctors have a pension only because of Doctors Council.

It was great to see so many doctors on the video call.  Many of you have shared positive feedback which is appreciated.  We are glad that you found the presentation useful and informative.

As was requested by many of you, please click here for the PowerPoint that was used.

As we discussed in the presentation, if you need assistance contacting NYCERS with a question or issue, please email kcollins@doctorscouncil.org with you name, cell #, email address and a brief description of your question or issue.  We will contact NYCERS to assist you.

We will continue our advocacy to protect your pension, as you and your family have earned and deserve the pension benefits.  Doctors Council provides many services to our members, including in bargaining, job protection, grievances and arbitrations to protect our contract rights, compensation, giving a strong voice at work, and empowering doctors to advocate in community and policy issues.

Please keep safe and well.

In Unity,

Frank Proscia, M.D.                 Kevin Collins
President                                   Executive Director

Doctors Council views yesterday’s guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial as a beginning measure of racial justice.  We mourn with and support the family of George Floyd.  But we need to do more.  Black lives matter.  Senseless killings and violence against persons of color and other communities must end.

We know that race matters.  Racial injustice takes many forms, including in healthcare, and who has access to what services and funding.  Racism is a public health crisis and one of the key social determinants of health.  Inequitable access and treatment to patient care services exists from childbirth throughout life.  In the COVID-19 pandemic, communities of color experienced disproportionate rates of illness, hospitalization and death.

We must address systemic racism and advocate against inequity and injustice. We must all call out any racial injustice and hold accountable those who perpetuate it in all its forms and work everyday to make this world, where we work and where we live a better, safer and more just place for all.  How any one of us is treated impacts us all.  Until Black communities and other communities of color are safe and can thrive, we will not have justice for all.

We must have communities where people can feel safe to live, can thrive and be treated equally in all aspects, including healthcare.  We should all be able to live safely, and with dignity and respect.

Frank Proscia, M.D., President of Doctors Council

Dear Doctor:

In March 2021, Doctors Council held a Free Doctors Council Legal Services Benefits and Legal Topics Presentation for our eligible members.  Our members were able to ask questions to and learn from 5 different attorneys with over 150 years of experience on a wide range of issues.

It was great to see so many doctors on the video call.  Many of you have shared positive feedback which is appreciated.  We are glad that you found the presentation useful and informative.

Please click here to view a copy of the Doctors Council Legal Services Benefit and please click here to view a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.

Please click here for the full Summary Plan Description (SPD) of all our benefits, including legal.

Below is the video recording of the Doctors Council Legal Services Benefits and Legal Topics Presentation.

If you have any questions on our Doctors Council Legal Services Benefits or would like to use them, please email info@doctorscouncil.org.

Please keep safe and well.

In Unity,

Frank Proscia, M.D.                 Kevin Collins
President                                   Executive Director

NATIONAL DOCTORS DAY, March 30, 2021

March 2021

From Dr. Frank Proscia, President, Doctors Council SEIU

Dear Doctors Council SEIU members:

Thank You Doctors.  As today – March 30, 2021 – is National Doctors Day, I want to thank each of you for what you have done over the past year and every day.

As President of Doctors Council SEIU, the union that represents doctors, and as a doctor myself, I am very proud of each of you, the commitment you bring and the sacrifices you make.

Our members put their lives on the line during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to do so, often leaving their families behind to care for the most vulnerable and sick patients and to manage and respond to this disease. Doctors are essential workers who chronically worked short-staffed and burned out on the frontlines in the hardest hit areas of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Here we are one year later after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with too many people having died and way too many more who have been infected.  Our colleagues have died from and been infected with COVID-19 over the last year.  But we also saw the heroic work of doctors and others who stood together and fought COVID-19, essential workers all of who put their lives and livelihoods on the line for those we care for and our communities.

To recognize how far we’ve come in the year since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we held a press conference at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York City, to say “Thank You Doctors” to all the doctor heroes who have given so much and been there for those we care for and our communities over the last year with the COVID-19 pandemic.  We honor our doctor heroes while remembering the patients we cared for and those whose lives were lost.

This “Thank You Doctors” press conference is for all of you, no matter where you work or what you do.  Each of you deserve and have earned that thanks.

On March 30th each year, National Doctors Day honors doctors for your dedication and what you do for our society and communities. On National Doctors Day, we say “thank you” to our doctors for all that they do for us and our loved ones.  You can read more about National Doctors Day here.

As a doctor myself and President of Doctors Council SEIU, I realize the commitment and sacrifices each of you has made to be a doctor. It took years of school, residency, study and training to be where you are today. The commitment that you bring every day and every shift is to be commended.  We celebrate your dedication to those we care for and the communities we serve.

That is why we at Doctors Council SEIU want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for being a doctor and a member of our union and profession.  March 30th is National Doctors Day every year.  We believe that every day should be a day to recognize doctors.

Thank you for what you are doing every day especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank You Doctors.

The history of National Doctors Day is an interesting one. The first Doctors Day was observed on March 30, 1933 in Winder, Georgia.  The wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond (Eudora Brown Almond) decided to set aside a day to honor doctors.  This included mailing greeting cards and placing flowers on graves of deceased doctors. National Doctors Day began in 1933 as a local commemoration in Barrow County, Georgia, to celebrate the date on which Dr. Crawford W. Long managed the primary ether sedative for surgery on March 30, 1842. The date for National Doctors Day is the anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery, as on March 30, 1842 Dr. Long used ether to remove a tumor from a patient’s neck. The red carnation is commonly used as the symbolic flower for National Doctors Day, for the reason that it signifies the qualities of sacrifice, charity, courage, bravery and love.

On March 30, 1958, a Resolution Commemorating Doctors Day was adopted by the United States House of Representatives.  In 1990, legislation was introduced in the House and Senate to establish a national Doctors Day.  Following overwhelming approval by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, on October 30, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed S.J. RES # 366 (which became Public Law 101-473) designating March 30 as “National Doctors Day.”

As stated in a Presidential Proclamation, what we do is a special calling, and those who have chosen this vocation understand the tremendous responsibility it entails. Doctors carry on every day in our communities through hard work and sacrifice.

Doctors Council looks forward to continuing to work together with each of you to advance our profession and to ensure our voices are heard.