Dear Doctors Council Members Employed by NYC H+H, PAGNY, NYU, and MSSM,
On Monday, July 22nd over 250 of your fellow Doctors Council members met with NYC H+H President and CEO Dr. Mitch Katz as part of our continued contract action campaign. We thank Dr. Katz for graciously agreeing to meet with us.
Dr. Katz heard from frontline doctors detailing the scope of the crisis of recruitment and retention and asking him pointed questions about topics such as the onerous amount of uncompensated work we do, unacceptable delays in service, and the disparities in treatment of the same specialties within the system. We challenged him to explain how the mission of H+H is upheld by a labor relations strategy that ultimately results in doctors and resources being stretched so thin that it negatively impacts the care we can provide to our patients.
We requested his support in achieving a fair contract for all of us as part of the solution to this crisis, and we have hoped to work with him in achieving that.
We were disappointed in his response. He made general commitments to “advocate” for us, but he declined to define how he would concretely push for additional funding from the Mayor and City Council. He held firm to supposed financial constrictions of H+H’s most recent contract proposal, and essentially told us that if we want to increase one part of it, we have to decrease another.
Dr. Katz heard loud and clear that the status quo is unacceptable, and that H+H’s current proposal will not resolve the crisis we experience every day. We will continue to push him to advocate concretely, publicly, and aggressively to increase the funding that his system gets from the Mayor and City Council to effectively recruit and retain doctors.
However, Monday night made clear that the change we need to see will not come from the top - change will have to come from us, the frontline doctors, coming together and taking collective action. There is no top-down solution to our problems.
If the deal H+H is putting on the table is unacceptable to you, then you cannot rely on Dr. Katz to change it. We all need to come together, take action and collectively pressure Dr. Katz, H+H leadership, and ultimately the Mayor and City of New York to properly fund H+H so we can achieve a fair contract.
We will be communicating with you routinely with more information on how you can get involved in our fight for a fair contract.
As always, we are stronger together.
In Solidarity,
Frances Quee, M.D.
President
Doctors Council
