New York City, NY – Among the many New Yorkers with grievances with Eric Adams is a group of 2300 public hospital physicians who have not received a pay increase since COVID was first sweeping New York in March of 2020. In the cold and rain outside Gracie Mansion Thursday evening March 28th, about 80 NYC Health and Hospitals resident physicians came together to recount their extreme daily stress: Working up to 80 hours a week in understaffed hospitals while receiving pay that, in some cases, less than minimum wage per hour.
After months of negotiations and action, the physicians, represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIRSEIU), are still waiting on the mayor to authorize their basic demands for pay equity and an increase to their Patient Care Trust Fund. Along with hospital closures, crises like homelessness and inadequate support for the city’s migrants under Mayor Adams have only compounded pressure on the nation’s largest public healthcare system, where residents and fellows are often the main doctors patients see. H+H resident physicians, who regularly experience burnout and chronic financial stress, feel the mayor is also abandoning a crisis in their well-being and the hospital’s ability to recruit the best doctors, which they say risks care for New York’s working class.
“I’m seeing the bright, talented doctors I met three years ago start to leave. Next year, I have to say with a heavy heart, I’ll be leaving too,” said Bellevue resident Dr. Tai Wei Guo. “I dreamt of working at a public hospital, taking care of patients like my mom, and I was willing to take a pay cut to do so, but I still have to pay rent. Sadly, the people of New York are the ones who will suffer the most from our mayor’s delay.”
The physicians previously testified on this crisis before the City Council Committee on Hospitals in February, and a number of community boards have also passed resolutions in support of the H+H residents’ fight.
The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) represents over 32,000 resident physicians and fellows.
