On Monday, approximately 155 resident physicians went on strike at the New York hospital once called “the epicenter of the epicenter” of the nation’s COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first doctor strike in the city in over 30 years.
Elmhurst Hospital and its outpatient services will stay open without interruption, according to the hospital.
According to Sunyata Altenor, the communications director for the Committee of Interns and Residents union, the resident physicians at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens don’t receive the same pay and benefits as their non-union counterparts working at other hospitals. Altenor added that despite Elmhurst being a municipal hospital, the residents are employed by Mount Sinai Health System through a partnership program.
“It feels so unjust that we, as largely immigrant doctors serving this working class immigrant community in Queens, have to beg to get what we need to pay our rent, and from a corporation like Mount Sinai that touts its commitment to New York communities,” Dr. Tanathun Kajornsakchai said in a statement last week.
About 63% of the hospital’s neighborhood population was born outside of the United States, per a 2018 municipal report.
Right now, resident doctors at Elmhurst make $68,000 a year but they want $75,000. They also want a safe ride home if they work late, hazard pay, and other benefits.
For their part, Mount Sinai Health System said in an online update last week it had offered “increasingly generous proposals” to the union during 14 bargaining sessions spanning nearly a year. The statement said the union’s “demands have only grown or changed” during that time. They also said they are “committed to working towards an equitable and reasonable resolution that is in the best interest for both our residents at Elmhurst as well as for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.”
This marks the second time the 160 doctors-in-training threatened to strike at Queens-based hospitals this month over wage increases. Only this time, they actually did it.
