NURSES RALLY AT RIKERS
Association members seek ‘seat at the table’ deciding future health care policies
During Nurses Week, their union held rallies at Brooklyn Hospital and Rikers Island seeking better PPE, and other things to make staff
and patients safer. Photos by Todd Maisel
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | MAY 15-MAY 21, 2020 21
BY TODD MAISEL
Members of the New York
State Nurses Association are
calling on the government to
give them a seat the table in
deciding medical policies going
forward after having been on
the front lines of the COVID-19
pandemic.
The association, made up of
45,000 nurses statewide, held
rallies at Bellevue Hospital in
Manhattan, Brooklyn Hospital,
and at Rikers Island. They
were seeking a say on issues
from having reusable PPE’s, to
the restoration of $2.4 billion
in Medicaid cuts, and building
up stockpiles of equipment for
a possible resurgence of the virus
and other pandemics in the
future.
The Rikers Island rally of
more than 50 nurses in front of
the Rikers Island sign on 19th
Street hammered home their
point that the facility was “unprepared”
for a pandemic and
its health care workers were
“inadequately supplied” with
PPE and other protections
from the beginning. Two of
their health care workers died
from COVID-19, contracted the
nurses say from sick inmates.
“New York cannot reopen
until we’ve got the tools we need
to stop another outbreak,” said
NYSNA Executive Director Pat
Kane, RN. “We cannot repeat
the mistakes to date, or many
more lives will be lost. Nurses
must have a seat at the table
where our state’s healthcare
decisions are being made.”
Kane point to what they
maintain is “the continued
inadequacy of personal protective
equipment (PPE), including
the rampant reuse of N95
disposable respirators, which
contributed to eye-popping infection
rates among healthcare
workers.” She said reusable
respirators must be part of the
care planning going forward.
In addition, leaders are
calling for the restoration of
$2.5 billion in Medicaid cuts to
next year’s NYS budget. They
say “safety-net hospitals” have
borne the brunt of the COVID-
19 crisis and should receive a
greater share of state Medicaid
funding and other assistance
needed to care for long-deprived
communities.
They also say COVID-19
has also laid bare the deep economic
and racial disparities in
the state’s healthcare system.
Reversing these longstanding
inequities, they say, “must
be a central focus as we move
forward, and state lawmakers
must prioritize funding
for significant new healthcare
infrastructure in hardest-hit
communities.”
Most striking was a rally
outside the Rikers facility,
where at first, Corrections Officers
tried to break up the
rally, but then allowed it to
proceed as long as participants
remained on the sidewalk for
safety reasons. Placards put up
on the Rikers signage were also
requested to be taken down.
Nurses at Rikers expressed
the most outrage because
they say they lost two nurses
to COVID-19 as a result of
exposure.
Mesha McDonald, a nurse
at Rikers, mourned the loss of
her friend and colleague, nurse
William Chan who died from
COVID-19.
“We come every day with
the same mindset to serve our
patients, but today we stand
on our break to remember our
beloved co-worker who didn’t
have enough protection and had
a patient with COVID throw
up on him and he died and we
are in mourning right now,”
McDonald said. “Mr. William
Chan died and we don’t want
you to forget Mr. Chan who
gave his service to this community.
We had another young
lady Natasha, she died. We are
doing the job that people are
not willing enough to do so we
are asking for your help, your
solidarity. We are nurses and
this is a solemn nurses week
because it brings tears to our
eyes – this is not about the coffee
and the donuts, this is about
the reality.”
Nurses at Rikers say that it
helped a lot to reduce the jail
population, but precautions
need to be made to improve
conditions for workers and
inmates there.
“Jail and correction is not
what a lot of people want to
talk about,” said Nurse Alicia
Vupler, a nurse in Rikers. “We
are here every day and we want
to provide service safely. We
want to be prepared with the
proper equipment. We haven’t
always had the equipment as
needed and it didn’t come easy.
We have been playing catch up.
Some equipment is rationed
out and not given as we would
like it. Reducing the population
was a start, but we still need to
provide safe and quality care.”
Other changes underscored
by the nurses union include:
Science should set the standard.
Safety, not efficiency
or expediency, must drive decision
making; NY hospitals
must build up stockpiles of
vital equipment and begin migration
to equipment designed
to be reusable; On-demand,
rapid-result diagnostic testing
is a must for all front-line
healthcare workers; Antibody
tests are not and should not
be the basis for safety decisions;
Nothing less than the
two-week quarantine or isolation
period must be allowed for
full recovery; Going forward
hospitals will need more, not
less, staffing. Nurses report
COVID-19 patient loads far beyond
what can be safely managed;
Surge capacity must be
maintained. Enough hospital
beds and adequately trained
staff are required to handle
the repeat outbreaks anticipated.
Declare a moratorium
on hospital closings; Improved
ventilation and enhanced engineering
controls must be
installed where needed; Coordinated
purchasing pools, not
“PPE to the highest bidder”,
are the key to equitable access
and results.
This rally and several rallies
have occurred despite the
mayor and NYPD commissioner
saying these gatherings
were not permitted.
A Corrections Captain tries to move the rally but is convinced to
allow it to continue.
/QNS.COM
