On November 5, the City Council Hospitals Committee held a hearing on “Examining the City’s support for NYC hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.” NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell and NYC Health + Hospitals President and Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Katz, MD, and Deputy Director of NYC Test and Trace Corps Jackie Bray testified on behalf of the de Blasio administration. GNYHA’s Jenna Mandel-Ricci testified on how GNYHA and our member hospitals and health systems across the City worked with the City and State governments to manage the initial patient surge in the spring and how we are all collaboratively preparing for future waves.
The hearing’s major themes included how the City helped hospitals to surge staffing; acquire and distribute personal protective equipment, ventilators, and other supplies; facilitate patient transfers; and how we are addressing health care disparities. An archived video of the hearing is available here.
The Hospitals Committee and Health Committee will hold a joint hearing on “Vaccines and Future COVID-19 Treatments” on November 24 at 10:00 a.m.