Why Hundreds of Nurses Are Hanging in NYC—and What It May 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 may have an effect on town’s well being care system.

The strike, which started on Monday morning, got here as contract negotiations stalled after months of bargaining, in keeping with the nurses’ union, New York State Nurses Affiliation (NYSNA). It's impacting among 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 in regards to the state of affairs.

Why are nurses on strike?

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

“Hospital administration refuses to deal with our most necessary points—affected person and nurse security,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans stated in a press launch. “It's shameful that 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 wish to strike,” Hagans continued, “however our bosses have compelled us out on strike.”

Hospital officers, although, have referred to as among 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 yr, and that NYSNA’s asks would increase that quantity to $275,000 over three years.

“The well being care system is beneath siege financially,” Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the commerce group Larger New York Hospital Affiliation, instructed the Occasions. “The calls for of the union are so outrageous that there is no such thing as a means they will concede to what the union is asking for.”

What may the strike imply for sufferers?

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

The order famous that the pressure on hospitals might be exacerbated due to the surge in flu circumstances in current weeks. The New York Metropolis Well being Division reported on Thursday that greater than 128,000 circumstances of the flu had to this point been recorded within the metropolis because the flu season started, amid a wider spike in each circumstances and hospitalizations pushed by a brand new variant of influenza A referred to as “subclade Okay.” The division famous that town had seen a two-week decline in new circumstances 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 anticipated to proceed for a number of extra weeks.”

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