NYSNA rally demands more nurses
Staff at Lincoln and Jacobi Hospitals urge Cuomo to provide more funding
BY JASON COHEN
Before COVID-19 hit, New
York experienced a nursing
shortage in hospitals and
other health care facilities.
Now with fears of a second
wave the need for nurses has
risen again.
But health care workers
from the Bronx felt that Governor
Andrew Cuomo and
the state are dragging their
feet on the matter.
On Aug. 26, nurses at Jacobi
and Lincoln Hospitals
rallied, urging Cuomo to
heed their requests and fi nd
funding for more nurses.
“The damage to low-income
and POC communities’
health when we cut resources
to public hospitals is
lasting,” said the New York
State Nurses Association on
Facebook. “Governor Cuomo
and NY legislators, stop balancing
the budget on the
backs of overworked publicsector
nurses. Tax the rich
and stop the cuts!”
“How can politicians call
nurses ‘heroes’ one day, and
lay us off the next? H+H is
already underfunded, understaffed
and under-appreciated.
New York needs to
tax the rich and invest in
our public healthcare system,
not starve it further,”
NYSNA continued.
Councilman Fernando Cabrera
joined the nurses last
week in the protest. He called
the recently released State
Department of Health study
on nurse staffi ng “fi xed” and
is also demanding the hiring
of more nurses.
“Just two weeks ago, fully
eight months late, the Department
of Health released
a nurse staffi ng report
based on fl awed methodology,
with no consideration
of the lessons learned from
COVID-19,” Cabrera said.
“The study wildly overstates
the economic impact of meeting
minimum, safe nurse
staffi ng levels. This study
was ‘fi xed’ to misrepresent
the facts.”
Cabrera recently introduced
a resolution, “Safe
Staffi ng for Nurses,” calling
on the State Department
of Health to be responsive
to the needs of nurses and
low-income communities
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,2 SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2020 BTR
of color.
“We need to protect the
nurses who are protecting
us,” Cabrera said. “Nurses
helped get New York out of
the ‘epicenter’ and it’s nurses
who can help us prevent a
dangerous second wave of
COVID-19 which would cost
more lives and livelihoods.
What we cannot afford is cutting
corners on safe staffi ng.
Loss of human lives is the
real cost. The state has not
moved forward and it’s now
a matter of life and death.”
According to Cabrera, the
state is claiming it will cost
a billion dollars to hire more
nurses, which he said is
total “nonsense.”
“It’s not only doable, it’s
needed,” he said. “Our nurses
have been burnt out. We
need to take from lessons we
learned back in March when
we were not prepared.”
Things may be headed
in the right direction as the
state is currently examining
legislation that would
“set minimum nurse-to-patient
ratios, including a standard
of one nurse for every
two patients in intensive
care units.”
Nurses protest cuts and demand more nurses are hired on Aug. 26 at
Jacobi and Lincoln Hospitals Courtesy of NYSNA Facebook