PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dr. Richard Sinert, Director of Research, Emergency Department at Kings County Hospital
2:50:55
ยท
3 min
Dr. Richard Sinert, a 40-year veteran at Kings County Hospital, testifies about the ongoing challenges faced by doctors in the NYC Health + Hospitals system, particularly focusing on recruitment, retention, and the potential for a strike. He highlights the lack of competitive salaries, burnout among young doctors, and the absence of longevity differentials as major issues.
- Emphasizes the severe staffing shortage and the reliance on temporary staff to cover shifts
- Discusses the unprecedented willingness of doctors to consider striking, indicating the severity of the situation
- Criticizes the implementation of a contract that fails to address retention and recruitment issues, and reduces benefits like CME, vacation time, and sick leave
Richard Sinert
2:50:55
So, this is my, Richard Sinnerton.
2:50:58
This is my 40th year at Kings County.
2:51:00
I've been in the emergency department for over 30 years.
2:51:02
And when I look at my legacy, I look, who's gonna replace me?
2:51:07
There's no one.
2:51:08
There's no one 10, 20 years my in my sight seniority.
2:51:14
We have a department because in decades and this is not just Mitch's cat Mitch Katz's time.
2:51:20
We have decades of underfunding and paying doctors below the fair market rate.
2:51:27
So and so what happens?
2:51:30
So occasionally, we can recruit because everyone wants to work in Kings County.
2:51:34
So we can recruit medicals residents, emergency medicine residents who spend a year or 2 with us to get a reputation, to get clinical experience, and then they burn out because because the salary is so low, they have to work these procession shifts.
2:51:50
And they work a tremendous number, thank God, because if we did have those procession people, we couldn't cover the staff because we're so short.
2:51:58
And then if you're lucky enough to keep them a few years, there's no longevity differential.
2:52:03
So I I told you, I'm 30 years in the emergency department, 30 years clinical experience.
2:52:08
I'm an NIH principal investigator.
2:52:12
I've worked for pharmaceutical companies.
2:52:14
I've taught statistics.
2:52:16
And if a new graduate out of the residency, so 3 or 4 years out of medical school, gets hired, it's the same salary that I get.
2:52:25
Well, who's gonna stay for that?
2:52:27
It doesn't make sense.
2:52:28
Who's gonna stay for that?
2:52:29
And no one stays for that.
2:52:31
Why did I stay?
2:52:32
I'm a lifer.
2:52:33
I'm like doctor Queen.
2:52:34
I'm a lifer.
2:52:35
That's it.
2:52:36
But you're not gonna find many people like that.
2:52:39
The other thing I wanna talk about is the strike.
2:52:41
So 40 years health care industry.
2:52:44
A strike is an anathema to doctors.
2:52:47
To mention a strike was shocking.
2:52:49
16 months ago when we started bargaining, we talked about a strike.
2:52:53
I was totally against it, totally against it.
2:52:55
How could doctors strike?
2:52:56
I never heard of that.
2:52:59
But think what they had to do to us to get thousands of doctors, like, 25 100 doctors to agree to strike.
2:53:06
This is a big deal, and I think people don't understand that.
2:53:10
And I I understand it's complicated.
2:53:13
Doctor Katz is right.
2:53:14
It is complicated, but I've sat for 16 months every week at the bargaining committee.
2:53:20
And you know what?
2:53:21
It's complicated, but we're pretty smart.
2:53:23
And we figured out many, many proposals and counterproposals that were all rejected, rejected by PAGNY.
2:53:32
That's the the affiliate that's the main affiliate.
2:53:35
And they rejected them so often that after a while, they just implemented a contract against our wishes.
2:53:43
And that even more galling, they implemented a contract that didn't address retention and recruitment.
2:53:50
They took away CME.
2:53:51
I mean, it's just it's just a little thing.
2:53:54
CME, vacation time, sick leave, people get sick.
2:53:57
I work with COVID patients, flu season.
2:53:59
Doctors get sick.
2:54:00
They took away days of each of the and then the most galling, if you work because if you work a procession shift, we just call it overtime, but a procession shift, The first hour is unpaid.
2:54:14
That's crazy.
2:54:15
Who gets unpaid?
2:54:17
So these are just some of the reasons.
2:54:19
What we need from you is when when we were at the bargaining table, they said no to everything just because there wasn't enough money.
2:54:27
They said the pot was just this big.
2:54:30
It wasn't complexity.
2:54:32
The pot was just too big.
2:54:33
We need you to make the pot bigger.
2:54:37
And that's what we're asking for.
2:54:38
Thank you.