Officers at Mount Sinai hospital on Sunday refuted claims that sufferers have died on account of a large nurses’ strike — and mentioned that they had greater than sufficient certified replacements able to step in.
The well being care big, which operates three main Manhattan hospitals, mentioned greater than 1,400 skilled nurses stepped in with out a hitch when 15,000 union nurses walked off the job on Jan. 12, permitting Mount Sinai and two different impacted Huge Apple well being care corporations to proceed to avoid wasting lives.
“We hope [New York State Nurses Association] ends its strike so we are able to deliver our unbelievable nurses again as quickly as attainable,” a Mount Sinai rep mentioned in a press release.
“However our complete planning ready our hospitals to proceed to have the ability to present wonderful, protected affected person care – together with essentially the most complicated circumstances – throughout NYSNA’s second strike in three years,” the rep mentioned.
The retort comes after a placing nurse claimed that no less than one affected person had died after union members walked off the job in search of an improve in pay and advantages.
However in an e-mail to The Publish on Sunday, town Division of Well being mentioned it had no document of such a demise.
“The division has not recognized any critical operational points presently,” an company rep mentioned. “The division will proceed to overview reported hostile occasions and findings by the division’s oversight groups, and conduct investigations as needed to guard affected person security.
“The division doesn’t speculate or touch upon particular person circumstances to guard affected person privateness.”
In a separate assertion, union officers additionally walked again the declare.
“NYSNA is just not claiming that any deaths immediately derived from the strike,” the union assertion mentioned.
“Union officers and NYSNA members would not have any direct information of particular incidents or general situations inside the hospitals as a result of we’re exterior on the picket line.”
In line with hospital officers, the three affected personal hospital networks — Mount Sinai, Montefiore and New York Presbyterian — have continued to carry out high-level medical procedures, together with liver and kidney transplants, practically a dozen cardiac surgical procedures, a coronary heart transplant and two double lung transplants.
“Whereas the NYSNA strike is designed to create disruption, all our hospitals and emergency rooms are open, are accepting new sufferers, and proceed to offer the top quality of care our sufferers anticipate from us,” New York Presbyterian officers mentioned.
“We’re delivering infants at roughly the identical price as earlier than the strike began,” the corporate mentioned. “Even throughout this time of seasonally elevated emergency room visits, our operations are operating easily.”
The strike, which can enter its second week on Monday, is the most important in New York Metropolis historical past and the primary because the union walked off the job in 2023.
The brand new stalemate between the three main medical methods and the placing nurses has been heated and acrimonious from the beginning — with one of many healthcare giants allegedly accusing the union of trying to guard members who present up for work drunk or stoned.
The accusation got here from brass at Montefiore Medical Middle in The Bronx, which accused the New York State Nurses Affiliation of placing to stop more durable self-discipline in opposition to inebriated hospital employees.
“NYSNA management’s demand {that a} nurse not be terminated if discovered to be compromised by medication or alcohol whereas on the job is one other instance of placing their very own self-interest earlier than affected person security,” Montefiore mentioned in a press release to The Publish final week.
