NYC NOW - July 19, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Some hospitals in New York and New Jersey are delaying medical care because of the ongoing global tech outage. In other news, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries isn't pushing Joe Biden to exit the presidential race, at least publicly. Meanwhile, the MTA says the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel will be closed to traffic overnight from July 19 to the 24th. The Queens Midtown Tunnel will also close at midnight on the 27th and 28th, as well as through the following weekend starting August 3rd. Plus, New York City apartment buildings with fewer than ten units must now put their garbage in trash bins. But what do you do if yours is stolen? WNYC’s Liam Quigley reports. Finally, New York City’s medical examiners say they’re dealing with a staffing crisis. WNYC’s Michael Hill speaks with health reporter Caroline Lewis for more on the situation.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. Some hospitals in New York and New Jersey are delaying medical care because of the ongoing global tech outage. That includes Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park, Brooklyn. New York City Councilmember Shahana Haneefe says she traveled 45 minutes to Maimonides for a doctor's appointment only to find out it was canceled. I looked at the receptionist very surprised. and then was told, you know, we're not making any appointments on site right now, but you can expect somebody to call you in the coming days to reschedule.

And this is an appointment I'd been waiting for, where I want to say, like, six to eight weeks. Maimonides posted online that it is still open, but delaying some non-essential procedures, patients should call ahead about their appointments. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries isn't pushing Joe Biden to exit the president, presidential race, at least publicly. The Brooklyn Democrats spoke on the Brian Laird show on Friday. The ticket that exists right now is a ticket that we can win on. There, of course, is work to be done. And that, in fact, is the case because we are an evenly divided country. Jeffrey's says the president has an extensive track record of success and a base of support throughout the country. But multiple

reports this week said Jeffreys is expressing concern in private. The Washington Post reports, he told Biden, he's worried Democrats will lose down-ballot races if Biden remains at the top of the ticket. Speaking on WNIC, Jeffrey said his conversation with the president will remain private. The MTA says two major tunnels will be closed overnight for the next few weeks to test flood doors ahead of potential hurricanes and strong storms. The agency says the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel will be closed to traffic overnight starting Friday at 11 p.m. and most nights through July 24th. The Queens Midtown Tunnel will close at midnight on the 27th and 28th,

as well as the following weekend starting August 3rd. The MTA says the 20-plus-ton steel flood doors can only be moved when the tunnel tube is fully closed to traffic. For more information, visit MTA.com. New York City apartment buildings with less than 10 units must now put their garbage out in trash bins. But what do you do if yours is stolen? W&Y's Liam Quigley has more on the new rules. Sanitation Department officials say, your bins are your property. So if yours are pilfered by thieves, you should go to the police.

But when Queen's resident David Selig found his trash cans missing earlier this year, he says the NYPD wasn't able to help. They basically said, listen, if you don't show us a headshot in focus of the person doing it, we can't pursue this as a cry. There have also been reports of bins disappearing from businesses like restaurants, which are already required to use them. The bin mandate for smaller residential buildings starts in November, and landlords will risk fines if they're,

pile trash bags on their curbs, even if their garbage cans were taken by thieves. Up next, New York City is losing medical examiners faster than it can replace them. We'll have that story after the brain. New York City's medical examiners say they're dealing with the staffing crisis. They say they're already performing fewer autopsies as a result, and they might have to cut back even more. That could mean providing less accurate or less complete information about how some New Yorkers died. My colleague Michael Hill spoke with health reporter Caroline Lewis for more on the situation. Caroline, how bad is this staffing shortage and

what's behind it? Well, the medical examiners in the city are basically running for the door. They're leaving faster than they can be replaced. Just a few years ago in 2021, the city had 32 full-time medical examiners, and now they're down to about 20 and say more people are expected to leave in the coming months. They say, sounded the alarm in a letter to Mayor Adams yesterday, and medical examiners I spoke to said people are retiring or leaving for cities where they can make more money, and as they leave, it's creating a snowball effect since it leaves more work for everyone else. So it's also making it harder to train new recruits. And I should note, the medical examiners are speaking up about all

this as their union pushes for a new contract with the city with more pay and better benefits. and both the medical examiners and the city acknowledge that there is this national shortage of these highly specialized professionals. The city says they're working to recruit more people and are trying to adapt to the shortage in the meantime. How is this affecting the medical examiners work so far? So there's one particular thing that this is affecting that I think is really interesting. Medical examiners are tasked with investigating violent or suspicious deaths that take place across the city and also suspected overdose deaths. And the opioid epidemic has really driven up their caseload in recent years. So up until now, the city has been following guidance from the National Association of Medical

Examiners that says in every case where it looks like someone died of a drug overdose, you shouldn't just test to see what substances were in their system, but also conduct a full autopsy to make sure there wasn't some other thing going on that caused their death. But medical examiners told me that a higher up in the office sent out new guidance in late June, saying they should not perform autopsies in some suspected overdose cases now, you know, specifically for older adults who had a prior medical history. And the reasoning behind that is that if the drug tests come back negative in those cases, they could at least point to some other potential reason why the person died. But this is a real departure from the

norm. I'm wondering, what are the potential consequences of making that change? Well, even though there is this national standard, there is still some debate within the forensic community about whether an autopsy is really needed to confirm every apparent overdose. And this is definitely a place where other understaffed offices have cut corners. But there's the risk of getting less accurate information or getting it wrong in some cases. Dr. Susan Ely, who retired from the city medical examiner's office last year, said the stakes are high for some of these cases because drug dealers are increasingly facing prison time if their customers die.

It's becoming much more complicated. in this age of fentanyl, and there's both federal and state criminal proceedings that are going forward for some of these deaths, depending on the circumstances. But experts I spoke to said they didn't think this change was likely to have a major effect on the overall number of overdose deaths, the city tallies. And the city stresses this is guidance. You know, the doctors can still have some discretion to do autopsies when they think it's necessary.

Is the city considering any other types of changes that might be felt by the public? Well, already the time it takes for medical examiners to produce their autopsy reports has gone up, but they have been very careful to make sure that they're still performing the actual autopsies within a matter of hours so that grieving families don't have to wait too long to have their funerals. But the doctors are saying funerals could also be delayed if another change that's under consideration goes into effect. So right now, medical examiners perform autopsies in offices in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. but staffers told me that the office is weighing whether to consolidate autopsies and only have them in two of those locations. And so, for instance, if they're not performed in Brooklyn anymore, that could mean a funeral director in Brooklyn has to travel into Manhattan to pick up a body. You could imagine, you know, during rush hour traffic, that could make for a slower turnaround.

But the city says there's no immediate plan at the moment to put that into effect. And funeral directors I spoke with actually said that, you know, at least for now, they're pretty happy with how the medical examiner's office is operating. So what exactly, Caroline, are the medical examiners asking for? And what does the city have to say about it? Well, medical examiners point out that in 2018, the city came to an agreement with their union, the doctor's council, to offer retention bonuses for people to stay longer. And they say it really helped with staffing. But that expired in 2021. And the doctor's counsel says the city refused to renew it. And they say that's when the exodus really started. So they want the city to now increase pay. and also offer other incentives like that to keep people in their jobs.

The city has declined to comment on the ongoing contract negotiations. That's WNIC's Michael Hill talking with health reporter Caroline Lewis. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Boutich, Amber Bruce, Ave Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, Jen Munson, Jidei Pierre, and Wayne Schollmeister, with help from the entire WNYC Newsomyssey. room. Our show art was designed by the people at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrato.

I'm Sean Carlson. Have a lovely weekend. We'll see you on Monday.