NYC doctors threaten to strike on Jan. 13; Mayor Eric Adams wants mediation

Nearly 1,000 unionized doctors who staff New York City public hospitals in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx are threatening to strike Jan. 13 absent the resolution of a contract dispute that has lasted over a year.

The strike, which the union says would be the largest of attending physicians in city history, would cover NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in the Bronx, NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx, NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens and NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island, a campus that includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital, formerly Coney Island Hospital.

The specifics of the dispute, involving the Doctors Council union, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, and NYC Health + Hospitals, the city entity that runs the municipal public health system, and other private entities, were not disclosed. The union says that negotiations have been going on for over a year.

In a news release announcing that the union had provided a 10-day strike notice, Joplin T. Steinweiss, a primary care physician at Jacobi, suggested that what the city has offered is insufficient.

"We are on the front lines of healthcare every day, working tirelessly to provide the best possible care to our communities," Steinweiss said “But H+H and its affiliates are failing to offer a contract that addresses the rising costs of living, the long hours we work, and the increasing stress and burnout we face as our hospitals struggle to recruit and retain qualified doctors.”

On Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrote a letter urging that the parties enter mediation, and a 60-day “‘cooling off period’ … during which all of the parties attempt to resolve their differences and avoid disrupting health care being delivered to thousands of patients across the five boroughs,” according to a news release from his office.

“A physicians’ strike at four public safety-net hospitals in three boroughs poses substantial risks to the health and safety of the city’s patients and our communities,” Adams said in the release.

Although the city funds the doctors and public workers are generally exempt from striking under the Taylor Law, salaries are paid by the private entities, Physicians Affiliate Group of New York, P.C. and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Last year, the city health system halved appointment times for adult and youth primary care visits, an effort to broaden availability, Politico New York reported.

The region has seen a spate of strike threats by health care workers — including on Long Island — over pay, working conditions and staffing levels.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.