FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 16, 2020 • HEALTH CARE NOW • THE QUEENS COURIER 25
health care now
Nurses at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center
demand more supplies to fi ght COVID-19
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Nurses and administrators at
the Wyckoff Heights Medical
Center on the Brooklyn/Queens
border on April 10 called on
government offi cials to supply
the hospital with more staff ,
equipment and COVID-19 tests
as the facility grapples with a
surge in patients due to the viral
outbreak. Th e lack of suffi cient
staff and supplies has left workers
at the hospital on Bushwick’s
Stockholm Street scrambling to
adjust to the new conditions,
according to one nurse, who said
that staff were given scant preparation
to fi ght the virus.
“Th ere was no retraining, no
anything,” said Dalia Branford.
“It was an absolute nightmare. I
literally cried at the end of my
shift .”
Branford has been working as
a pediatric nurse for the past
decade, but had to relearn treating
adults when she found her
pediatric unit had been converted
into a coronavirus facility.
“I had to relearn it while I have
a patient who is my responsibility,”
Branford said.
Another nurse in the hospital’s
intensive care unit said
that she and her colleagues are
spread very thin as the nurseto
patient ratios have more than
doubled, forcing nurses to care
for upwards of four patients at
a time — many of whom are
in serious conditions struggling
with the respiratory disease.
“You do what needs to be
done, but you now have to split
your time between four patients.
You move from one to the next.
It’s almost like an assembly line,”
said Coleen Peters. “Sometimes
it’s so busy you don’t have time
for bathroom breaks or lunch.”
Th e hospital has also struggled
to provide the necessary
amount of personal protective
equipment, such as masks, face
shields and gowns, according to
Branford. Staff are only provided
with one N95 mask and one
pair of scrubs per 12-hour shift ,
and she said she’s had to use the
same medical face shield for the
past fi ve shift s.
“If I’m perspiring through it
where it’s literally clinging to my
skin, you can’t ask me to re-wear
it,” Branford said. “It’s not sanitary.
I’m going to make myself ill,
my co-workers, and my patients.”
Th e protesters demanded that
more frontline healthcare workers
get tested for COVID-19,
because of their high chance of
exposure to the virus, which has
already cost the life of one of
their co-workers, according to
Branford. “Th is is horrible given
that we live in the 21st century
and in a fi rst-world country,”
she said.
Th e hospital — which registered
the fi rst coronavirus-related
death in New York City on
March 14 — has been struggling
to secure resources as it competes
with other larger healthcare
providers, according to a
press release by the New York
State Nurses Association, which
organized a rally to highlight the
issue on April 10.
Staff also recently set up a
makeshift morgue in refrigerated
trailers on Stanhope Street
to store the increasing number
of dead bodies. Friday’s protesters
demanded that Governor
Andrew Cuomo fast-track distribution
of tests and protective
equipment to the hospitals
hardest hit by the health crisis,
and for President Donald
Trump to authorize the Defense
Production Act, which would
allow the federal government
to force private companies to
produce medical equipment to
combat the pandemic.
Cuomo announced Friday that
he was ramping up antibody
testing and that the state is on
track to conduct 1,000 of those
per day by April 17, and double
that the following week, but said
that the government would need
to scale up to testing “in the millions”
in order to tackle the virus.
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center
did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
“You do what needs to be done,
but you now have to split your time
between four patients. You move from
one to the next. It’s almost like an
assembly line."
Coleen Peters
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