QUESTION
What is the current status of sickle cell funding in New York City?
0:49:49
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3 min
President and CEO of New York City Health And Hospitals, Mitch Katz, explains there is no specific funding for sickle cell disease; instead, funding is allocated based on individual patient needs.
- NYC Health And Hospitals does not allocate budget by disease but provides care based on patient needs.
- Katz highlights the importance of the legislation for protecting sickle cell patients from opioid reduction movements that mistakenly include them.
- An informative video made at Kings County serves as a teaching tool about treating sickle cell disease pain crises.
- Katz mentions hospitals like Jacoby, Harlem, and Bellevue as part of the centers providing care for people with sickle cell disease along with Kings County.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:49:49
The council held a hearing on September 28th related to sickle cell disease.
0:49:55
It's an impact on the city and evaluating access to sickle cell care in the city.
0:50:00
The hearing introduced local law 163 of 2023, which would establish guidance improve health outcomes to individuals with sickle cell disease.
0:50:12
What's the current status of sickle cell funding?
Mitch Katz
0:50:17
First, I just wanna commend you on on that legislation.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:50:20
Thank you.
Mitch Katz
0:50:21
And again, for for everybody to understand how important your legislation is.
0:50:28
There was a movement that was well intentioned in the US to decrease opioid use among people with chronic diseases for good reason, and we saw many overdoses in New York City, but there was a failure to understand that sickle cell is not one of the disease for which pain medication should be held.
0:50:49
It is a chronic disease, but it's a chronic disease with acute exacerbation.
0:50:54
That have to be treated adequately with pain medication, very different than the diseases people were trying to help people to get off of where the opioids are not particularly helpful because people are taking them every single day for months on end, and those medications don't work.
0:51:13
So much I think is about working into vigually with patients.
0:51:19
We don't have a set budget because by disease, because we'll do whatever is necessary secure for any individual patients.
0:51:27
And one of the most helpful things that we've done is Kings County in invited one of the patients to come and talk to them about her experiences in the air emergency room and other emergency rooms around the city, and they together made a video, as a teaching video, to help for practitioners to understand what it feels like to be in a pain crisis, what you're looking for in a pain crisis, how what is good treatments by doctors and nurses, what is, insulting treatment by doctors and nurses, and we're using that video throughout our system as a teaching tool.
0:52:11
So we will provide whatever services people need.
0:52:15
Kings County is one of our centers of excellence There's also quite a lot of care provided to this population at Jacoby, at Harlem, at Bellevue, but all of our hospitals are used to providing good care for people with sickle cell disease.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:52:35
So there is no specific funding.
Mitch Katz
0:52:38
We we we don't budget by illness.
0:52:42
We always the idea is that our job should be to meet every patient's needs, whatever their illness is.