Doctors Council/Service Employees International Union

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: Thursday, December 19, 2024

Media Contacts:

Steph Derstine, steph.derstine@berlinrosen.com, 512-820-7903

NYC Health + Hospitals Doctors Vote to Authorize A Work Stoppage Amid Ongoing Understaffing Crisis, Busy Holiday Season

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Doctors at Jacobi Medical Center, North Central Bronx Hospital, Queens Hospital Center and South Brooklyn Health decry understaffing crisis impacting patient care

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As cost of living soars, doctors demand more investment from city to guarantee quality care for vulnerable New Yorkers

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New York, NY — Doctors working for the private sector affiliates of NYC Health + Hospitals (NYC H+H), including PAGNY and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, announced Thursday that they have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a work stoppage if needed as they continue to raise alarms on an understaffing crisis that is threatening patient care across the city. Thousands of doctors employed by NYC H+H affiliates and represented by Doctors Council - Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have spent the last two years negotiating a contract. Now, they’re fed up and ready to begin a work stoppage as negotiations stall.

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“I love my job and am passionate about delivering quality care to patients who need it most,” said Dr. Michael P. Jones, Vice Chair for Education and the Residency Program Director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Jacobi. “There are real consequences to the extreme understaffing and high turnover rates we contend with throughout NYC Health + Hospitals facilities. Failure to support physicians has too often meant breaks in continuity of care, longer wait times, and patients being forced to travel far from home to get the care they need. As the largest public healthcare system in the country, NYC H+H has the potential to lead the way in what humane, compassionate care for everyone can look like. A fair contract is about more than physician effectiveness: it’s about securing the healthcare future for New Yorkers.”

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The frontline doctors who work at Jacobi Medical Center, North Central Bronx Hospital, Queens Hospital Center and South Brooklyn Health voted an overwhelming 97% in favor of the work stoppage, emphasizing their determination to address ongoing recruitment and retention challenges that have exacerbated the shortage of doctors needed to care for New York City’s most vulnerable communities. Since September 2023, over 2500 doctors employed by NYC H+H affiliates have been negotiating a new contract with the hospital system that would encompass crucial changes aiming to attract and retain doctors, thereby reducing patient wait times and enhancing care for all.

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Despite providing care to over one million New Yorkers every year – including the poorest and most marginalized families in the city – many doctors in city hospitals are currently paid well below market rates compared to their counterparts in the private sector. Doctors working in the public healthcare system are often forced to consider offers from the private sector in order to keep up with the rising cost of living, pay off medical school debts, and come close to market rates. In an effort to address this pay disparity, doctors at H+H are advocating for proper salary adjustments in their contract, to keep their jobs competitive and ensure the hospital system retains high quality doctors.

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“We all know colleagues who felt they had no choice but to take a higher-paying job in the private sector due to having a family,”said Dr. Gray Ballinger, a primary care doctor at Queens Hospital Center. “Those of us who remain in public service face pressure to see more and more patients in less and less time which inevitably compromises the care of New York’s most vulnerable. Our hospitals are now facing a recruitment and retention crisis, and we need to achieve a fair contract to begin to reverse the damage done. Yet NYC H+H is ignoring our concerns – bargaining has stalled, there are no dates to resume negotiations, and patients across the city are already being impacted.”

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Today’s announcement builds on the growing momentum of interns, residents, and attending physicians uniting across New York City to fight for solutions to ongoing recruitment and retention crises directly undermining patient care throughout the city. Just last week, resident physicians who’ve been fighting over 16 months for a strong first contract with Montefiore Medical Center’s Moses campus rallied outside of the Bronx hospital to call out the hospital’s management for failing to reach an agreement that would alleviate their struggle to make ends meet and ensure they’re able to focus on improving patient care. Elsewhere, doctors are raising demands for even stronger agreements that would provide adequate staffing and protections for patients.

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“As the ‘City of Yes’, New York City should ensure that all New Yorkers have access to high-quality healthcare. As a physician, I understand the tough choices my colleagues face regarding potential job actions, but we are united in our commitment to our patients,” said Dr. Frances Quee, a pediatrician at H+H Gotham Health, Blevis and President of Doctors Council SEIU. “Our goal is to recruit and retain qualified doctors and staff to provide the care patients deserve. Alarmingly, our patient appointment times have already been reduced from 40 minutes to just 20. We urge the City of New York, H+H, Mt. Sinai and PAGNY to support the dedicated frontline doctors who tirelessly care for the residents of this great city.”

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