City Council Member Mark Treyger (D-Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Gravesend) is pushing the city and state to confront the COVID-19 war zone by transferring nursing home patients to the empty beds at the Jacob Javits Center, USNS Comfort, and other federal field hospitals.
Treyger is floating the idea in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It comes following reports on KCP and other media outlets of the scores of Coronvirus-related deaths at both public and private nursing homes and rehabilitation centers across the city and state.
“We are getting reports of war zones in nursing homes without adequate doctors, PPE, cleaning supplies, and tests,” wrote Treyger in a draft of the letter. ” We have also heard that seniors who have been treated and recovered from COVID-19 at New York City hospitals are often not being let back into their nursing homes. No matter the circumstance, it is our responsibility to create safe spaces for our seniors as they are being ravaged by this disease in their homes and in medical facilities.
Treyger suggests that the city and state work in taking stock of those infected in nursing homes (public and private), as well as those who recovered at hospitals and are not yet allowed to return to their homes, and communicate with their loved ones that they will transport them to empty beds at Javits and USNS Comfort and other federal field hospitals to get adequate and safe care.
“Once Javits and the Comfort are set to accommodate these seniors, we must expand to other facilities as well. Hotels, dorms, and sites that were previously being considered for field hospitals should be converted to these kinds of treatment, isolation, and recovery centers for seniors. Hospitals that have also created field hospitals/new wards should also be required to explore these conversions if hospitalizations decrease but these challenges remain,” Tryeger wrote.
Treyger wrote that transferring the patients will also allow nursing homes to adequately disinfect the facilities, and restock up on much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning supplies and sanitizer.
Three other City Council members including Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), chair of the Health Committee, Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), chair of the Hospitals Committee and Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), chair of the aging committee, have also signed onto Treyger’s letter, which is expected to be submitted today.
