More than 150 junior doctors went on strike Monday morning at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, the first physicians’ strike at a New York City hospital in more than 30 years.
Chief among their grievances is the fact that they are generally paid less at a public hospital in Queens, caring for poor patients, than their counterparts are paid at wealthier Manhattan institutions.
Although the strike is relatively small and is not expected to lead to major disruptions to healthcare, there is a lot of symbolism in it. Some three years ago, Elmhurst was one of the first hospitals in the United States to be overwhelmed by Covid-19.
Descriptions of panicked, panting patients, chest compressions, and refrigerated morgues—scenes an Elmhurst doctor described as “apocalyptic”—served as a warning to the rest of the country.
Now the standout young doctors, many of whom were still in medical school in 2020, say the pandemic has encouraged activism and organizing — and a growing willingness to challenge it against the low wages that junior doctors receive for long and grueling hours.
Trainee doctors who work in the city’s public hospitals have often been reluctant to rock the boat in the past. Many were born and educated abroad and have visas in the United States.
“As international residents, we are always so grateful — we feel very lucky to be here,” says Dr. Sarah Hafuth, a leader among the local doctors, who is from Canada. She added: “The pandemic has been an eye-opener. Doctors really started questioning our worth and asking, ‘Are we getting the support we need given the situation we’re in?’”
In Elmhurst, residents had more difficulty getting hazard pay during the pandemic than residents of some Manhattan hospitals. That angered many GPs and risk payment remains one of the causes of the strike, Dr Tanathun Kajornsakchai, a union representative, a psychiatry resident, said on Friday.
Strikes by physicians are a rarity in the United States. According to the Committee of Interns and Residents, the union that organized this week’s strike, the last one in New York City was in 1990 when young doctors at a hospital in the Bronx went on strike for nine days. They eventually won a pay raise and stricter enforcement of rules against working more than 12 hours straight.
Although the striking doctors work in Elmhurst, they are employed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, headquartered in Manhattan.
Doctors in many of New York’s 11 public hospitals are employed by major Manhattan hospitals and medical schools – the result of longstanding “affiliation” agreements between the public hospital system and the city’s leading medical institutions.
That means the city’s public hospital system, NYC Health + Hospitals, is largely a spectator in the negotiations.
“Our medical assistants play a vital role in patient care, and we hope they will soon reach an employment agreement to avoid a strike,” the public hospital system said in a statement. “In the meantime, we are making all necessary preparations to ensure uninterrupted access to patient care in the event of a strike.”
Residents’ main complaint is that their counterparts who work at Mount Sinai’s main hospital, across from Central Park on East 98th Street, earn significantly more.
Dr. Hafuth said freshmen assigned to Elmhurst made about $68,000 a year, while residents who worked at Mount Sinai’s main campus made $75,000. The doctors who live in Manhattan also have several advantages, said Dr. Hafuth, including that they can take a car service home at night.
“Our patient burden is all the same,” she said. “We see the same medical pathologies, the same complexity. So we’re at a point where we’re pretty frustrated about why Mount Sinai is willing to pay the residents of the Upper East Side more than we do.”
A spokeswoman for Mount Sinai, Lucia Lee, said in a statement that the health system was “committed to working toward a fair and reasonable resolution that is in the best interest of both our residents of Elmhurst and the Mount Sinai Health System.”
The strike comes after more than 10 months of contract negotiations between Mount Sinai and the Committee of Interns and Residents, the union representing local doctors. Mount Sinai said the union rejected its “last, best and last offer” – which Mount Sinai said would have seen increases of between 5 and 7 percent a year for the next three years.
As many as 172 doctors went on strike at 07:00 on Monday, coming from the departments of internal medicine, pediatrics and psychiatry.
“Our dedicated staff is ready to take on additional shifts and we will be able to mobilize clinicians from other hospitals as needed,” the statement from the public hospital system said.
