Nurses Seek New Contract at E&E Hospital; Rail Against Closure Plans for Beth Israel

Healthcare workers held a passionate rally denouncing Mt. Sinai–in part for its continued mission to close E. 16th St.’s Beth Israel hospital–at the corporation’s New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, located on the corner of 2nd Ave. and E. 14th St., on June 4.

Mt. Sinai resubmitted an application to shutter Beth Israel in late May, which was initially rejected as “deficient” by the state’s Department of Health in April. They want a response by the end of June, so that they could close up shop by mid-July. Mt. Sinai has already been hit with cease-and-desist and temporary restraining orders over their closure plans, considering that they’ve been shutting down the premises for months anyway.

The rally was technically organized around demanding a fair contract for NYEE nurses, considering that the current one expired a month ago. A lack of pay parity, compared to other Mt. Sinai outposts such as the still-existing Beth Israel, is an outstanding issue. As one chant put it: “If the nurses are outside, something is wrong inside.” Safe staffing is also an issue for nurses, who point out that patient overload for thinly-spread nurses makes it difficult for them to save lives.

Despite their precarious position, the New York State Nurses Association affiliates appeared joyous to be gathered together. Sadie, a dog cheerily panting in a stroller, was even wearing a red union tuxedo. Jack, a longtime nurse that originally hails from Philadelphia, told Straus News that it felt like he was up against “endemic” problems in the U.S.’s healthcare industry. However, he grinned when asked to describe the rally, which he said felt like “taking to the streets” with his coworkers.

John Paul (or J.P.), another rallying worker, said that the action was necessary because “Mt. Sinai isn’t the best communicator.” However, he was happy to see nurses “galvanized.”

J.P. also addressed Beth Israel’s possible closure, which would mean that lower Manhattan would be more or less without a major hospital presence, with the exception of a branch of NewYork-Presbyterian. Mt. Sinai has promised to open a new urgent care inside the premises of the NYEE, which healthcare advocates claim would not stanch the healthcare gap that the E. 16th hospital’s shuttering would create. It would also, as J.P. explained, exacerbate the staffing issues nurses were upset about.

“We had a meeting last week with Elizabeth Spelman, who is the president of Beth Israel,” he said. “They want to bring some more surgeries to [NYEE], more general cases. Which would be great, and we can do it, it’s just that we can’t even keep the nurses here.”

The rally soon turned into a series of speeches. Mark Hannay, a leader of the grassroots advocacy effort known as the Save Beth Israel and NY Eye & Ear Campaign, said that he had been coming to NYEE for years to “get his ears cleaned out.”

After his first such appointment, he said, he was “amazed at the difference. I was little freaked out at first, because I came out on the street and everything on the street was so loud.”

Experiences like this, Hannay implied, were what made “crown jewel” community hospitals like NYEE and Beth Israel so important. “We’ve watched the destruction of Beth Israel hospital, the intentional destruction, for over a decade now. We see that they’ve been doing the same thing here at [NYEE].”