A doctor’s union is calling out what it says are severe staffing shortages across the city’s 11 public hospitals as it attempts to negotiate a new labor contract.
Doctors Council, a local of the Service Employees International Union that represents 2,800 public sector doctors in New York City, held the first of a series of rallies on Friday to raise awareness about staffing shortages and physician burnout at public hospitals and outpatient clinics.
The union, which represents attending physicians, has been in negotiations with New York City Health + Hospitals since last August in an attempt to secure higher pay – a necessary step to recruit and retain more doctors, said Dr. Frances Quee, president of the Doctors Council.
There are vacancies across most of H+H’s hospitals and primary care clinics that have been difficult to fill because of pay disparities with other safety-net hospitals, said Quee, who is a pediatrician at H+H’s Gotham Health clinic in Mott Haven. “It’s just not attractive enough for people to take a bite.”
Chris Miller, a spokesman for the public hospital system, said that H+H has made “significant investments in its clinical workforce” in recent years, and noted that discussions were ongoing.
But the union says low pay has led doctors to flee for private sector jobs. Early-career physicians typically come to H+H to get three or four years of experience, but leave for more lucrative jobs to pay off medical school debt or feed their families, Quee said.
In December, three rheumatologists who work at Jacobi Hospital in Morris Park – the only rheumatologists employed by the facility, according to Quee – left because of their working conditions and pay. That has left Jacobi Hospital without rheumatologists, forcing other health care workers to scramble to find other hospitals where patients with autoimmune diseases such as lupus can get care.
Miller did not confirm the departures nor answer a question from Crain’s about the health system’s plan to transfer patients in need of rheumatology care.
Contract negotiations with attending physicians comes just a few weeks after the Committee on Interns and Residents negotiated a new contract with the public hospital system. The residents, who had an average salary of $66,000 during their first year on the job, won pay increases that brought them up to par with other safety-net institutions across the city.
Attending physicians are hoping for the same outcome. Public sector physicians are set to speak at Elmhurst Hospital in Corona today and at South Brooklyn Health in Coney Island later this week to call out staffing shortage. After those rallies, Quee said the union is hoping to go back to the bargaining table to win higher pay for public sector doctors.
H+H is not the only other party involved in those negotiations. Public hospital physicians are employed by affiliated hospitals or organizations, including Mount Sinai, NYU Langone or the staffing organization Physician Affiliate Group of New York – all of which have a seat at the table, Quee said.
The stakes are high as the public hospital system loses more physicians, according to Quee.
“Most of us are leaving,” she said. “That’s my fear at this point.”
Amanda D'Ambrosio , 2024-06-18 11:33:04
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