Cuomo claims NYC hospitals have enough protective gear — nurses say he’s lying
Gov. Cuomo said on Thursday that New York’s hospitals have “enough” protective gear for the moment — and he was immediately branded a liar by frontline nurses in New York City.
Cuomo was asked at a news conference in Albany about The Post’s front-page exposé that revealed a shortage of supplies at Mount Sinai West hospital in Midtown had led nurses to improvise protective gowns out of trash bags.
“Yeah, we’ve called the individual hospitals,” the governor said.
“There’s no doubt in the past few days, you know, there’s maybe — the distraction is a little start-and-stop — but we have enough PPE [personal protective equipment] and the New York City officials say they have enough PPE for the New York City hospitals.”
But nurses at Mount Sinai West were furious over the governor’s remarks.
“False reassurances at our expense!” one nurse told The Post.
Another accused Cuomo of “lying” and said the trash bags were needed due to a lack of protective gowns.
“We’re not supposed to wear a dirty gown for an entire 12-hour shift when you’re treating multiple patients. We’re not supposed to wear contaminated gowns,” the nurse said.
The New York State Nurses Association responded with a tweet saying, “Nurses are asking @NYGovCuomo . . . #GetMePPE! (PS — wearing a soiled mask for days at a time is not adequate PPE)”
In a follow-up tweet, the association extended an invitation to Cuomo “to come to #NYSHospitals & speak with frontline #nurses & #healthcareheroes about how #PPE is being rationed.”
A nurse at Mount Sinai’s flagship hospital on the Upper East Side called Cuomo’s denial of any PPE shortages “absolutely a lie.”
The Mount Sinai administration has “been sending out e-mails about it, [saying] if anyone wants to donate PPE, where to direct them,” the nurse said.
“If we didn’t have a shortage, they wouldn’t be asking for that.”
“Units from the other hospitals keep coming down to our ER to steal our PPE because they don’t have any,” the nurse added.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) called the situation at Mount Sinai West “shameful and shocking.”
“It is insane that the wealthiest country in the world and in the wealthiest city in United States that our heroes that are in the front line, our health-care workers, do not have all the personal protective equipment to protect themselves,” Johnson told CNN.
“And to see those photos of nurses and doctors wearing garbage bags is shameful and shocking.”
Dr. Evan Flatow, president of Mount Sinai West, disputed the nurses’ claims, saying, “We have had and have adequate protection for them.”
“You have a few nurses from our workforce telling you that we don’t have supplies, and we do have supplies,” he said.
Flatow noted the nurses seen clad the trash bags were also “wearing the approved gowns, gloves, face shields and masks, as they’re supposed to be.”
He said the nurses had access to enough gowns so they could change them each time they left the room of a coronavirus patient, unless they were assigned to a unit with only coronavirus patients.
In that case, he said, the nurses are advised to keep their gowns on until they leave the unit to reduce the risk of accidentally infecting themselves while removing the protective gear.
“It’s not like we’re rationing the gowns,” he said.
A spokesman for Mount Sinai system said it was following pandemic guidelines on the use of PPE from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Both agencies issued guidance permitting “extended use” and “reuse” of disposable N95 respirators in emergencies, on March 28, 2018, and on March 4, 2020, respectively.
Asked about the city’s rules for use of PPE, Mayor de Blasio said only, “There’s been a recognition that we’re in an unprecedented situation.”
Additional reporting by Rich Calder and Julia Marsh