Why Hundreds of Nurses Are Placing in NYC—and What It Might Imply for Sufferers

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Nearly 15,000 nurses at a number of main New York hospitals are on strike, elevating issues about how staffing shortages might have an effect on the town’s well being care system.

The strike, which started on Monday morning, got here as contract negotiations stalled after months of bargaining, in line with the nurses’ union, New York State Nurses Affiliation (NYSNA). It's impacting a few of the metropolis’s high medical facilities: Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Montefiore Medical Middle.

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Right here’s what to know concerning the state of affairs.

Why are nurses on strike?

The strikers’ particular calls for fluctuate between the a number of establishments the nurses walked out of, however the nurses’ union broadly mentioned that its members had been demanding enhancements to staffing ranges, well being advantages, and protections in opposition to office violence.

“Hospital administration refuses to handle our most necessary points—affected person and nurse security,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans mentioned in a press launch. “It's shameful that the town’s richest hospitals refuse to proceed healthcare advantages for frontline nurses, refuse to employees safely for our sufferers, and refuse to guard us from office violence.”

“Nurses don't need to strike,” Hagans continued, “however our bosses have pressured us out on strike.”

Hospital officers, although, have referred to as a few of the union’s requests too costly and defended nurses’ salaries; a spokesperson for Mount Sinai instructed The New York Occasions that nurses there make a mean of $162,000 a 12 months, and that NYSNA’s asks would increase that quantity to $275,000 over three years.

“The well being care system is below siege financially,” Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the commerce group Better New York Hospital Affiliation, instructed the Occasions. “The calls for of the union are so outrageous that there isn't any approach they'll concede to what the union is asking for.”

What might the strike imply for sufferers?

On Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an government order in anticipation of the strike, declaring a “catastrophe emergency” in a number of counties in and across the metropolis as a result of predicted “extreme staffing shortages” that she mentioned “are anticipated to influence the provision and supply of care, threatening public well being and security.”

The order famous that the pressure on hospitals may very well be exacerbated due to the surge in flu instances in current weeks. The New York Metropolis Well being Division reported on Thursday that greater than 128,000 instances of the flu had to date been recorded within the metropolis because the flu season started, amid a wider spike in each instances and hospitalizations pushed by a brand new variant of influenza A referred to as “subclade Okay.” The division famous that the town had seen a two-week decline in new instances following a record-setting week in December, however cautioned New Yorkers that “flu season is way from over.” The nationwide Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention gave its personal warning about ongoing dangers on Friday, saying that “elevated influenza exercise is predicted to proceed for a number of extra weeks.”

The hospitals affected by the strike are nonetheless open, and have employed journey nurses to briefly cowl for staff who're on strike, The Related Press reported. However the strike might imply that impacted medical establishments might need to switch sufferers to different hospitals and cancel or reschedule surgical procedures due to inadequate staffing ranges.