USA : « Doctors against Genocide »
Interview with hospital doctor Jasmeet Sanzu, conducted in New York on July 9. She shares her outrage at the massacre in Palestine, and also tells us about her struggle as a trade unionist against the collapse of New York's public hospitals.
- International, USA
Jasmeet Sanzu works in one of New York’s public hospitals. She is a member of the Doctors’ Council Union, which represents all physicians employed by the city.
Can you tell us a few words about you?
My name is Jasmeet Sanzu. I am a physician, a hospitalist in one of New York City’s public hospitals. I am part of Doctors Council Union, where we represent basically all of the city employees, all the city physicians.
Are you involved with physicians for Gaza movement?
Yes, I am also part of healthcare workers for Palestine and Doctors Against Genocide, where these are just basically healthcare workers, nurses, social workers, physical therapists, physicians, anyone who just works in the healthcare setting, organizing to basically voice our concern about what’s happening in Palestine, what’s happening in Gaza. Healthcare workers are being executed, tortured, killed for doing their job. Hospitals should be safe zones. They are being intentionally bombed. Patients are dying not from their disease, from their cancer, but from bombs, from bullet wounds. People are being tortured.
We are also seeing a mass starvation of people, preventing health treatment, cancer treatment. People are dying from infectious disease, malnourishment. It’s such a horrible healthcare crisis that’s happening in Gaza.
This is genocide. There is no healthcare system in Gaza now. We actually got a message a couple of weeks ago about healthcare workers who want to go to Gaza and help, and they said, you cannot bring any supplies. You can only bring one suitcase with your stuff, and you can’t bring any supplies. That’s insane. We should be giving more supplies to these people. They don’t have adequate oxygen beds. People are getting amputations without anesthesia. This is just the physical trauma stuff, but think about the mental distress that people are going through. Children are seeing generations of their family just blown up to pieces. Once this is over, think about all the trauma, all the mental health issues that people are going to be dealing with for generations and generations. This is so disgusting and so disturbing. Just any healthcare worker who sees this, it breaks my heart and it boils my blood, to be honest.
Tomorrow, you will have an action?
Yes. Tomorrow, it won’t be with healthcare workers for Palestine, but it will be Doctors’ Council Union. Right now, all of the city physicians are doing collective bargaining. We’re all negotiating our contracts. This is the first time where all the city physicians, people who are working for medical examinations, physicians who deal with Rikers patients in a jail setting, we are all doing our contract negotiations.
What we have noticed is that not only has wages not increased, they actually cut wages, they cut benefits. This is post-pandemic.
What is going on is that because we don’t have an adequate wage, people are leaving for private hospitals, hospitals that are well-funded, have enough resources. What is left is that these public hospitals don’t have enough healthcare workers. There are not enough nurses, social workers, doctors. So now the doctors who we are left here, who we generally love, I love my hospital. We work with the most vulnerable, underserved patient populations, you know, all of the migrants. This is the first time they’re seeing a doctor. They’re telling me their stories. They’re telling me their trauma, what they suffered just to come here. We are so overwhelmed.
We’re seeing so many patients, and we’re seeing our colleagues leave. So that means I have more patients, and it’s an issue. And what’s happening is that basically these communities don’t have adequate healthcare services. Our clinics, our hospitals are understaffed, and we have so many patients that we can’t see people in time.
And it’s frustrating because you want to spend time with these patients, but you have 10, 15 minutes. You have such a list of patients that you have to see, and you want to make sure everyone gets seen, and you’re not giving the time the patient needs. So it’s awful. Patients are suffering. Physicians are suffering. We are burnt out. I know a lot of people who have families. They said, I can’t support my family with this wage. I have to go to the other hospital. And that’s what’s happening. We have so many people leaving the public sector just because the benefits and wages are being cut.
Anything to add?
Basically, the whole point of this action tomorrow is that the mayor has cut so many, had made so many budget cuts to just public services, schools, libraries, healthcare, social services. And he wants to continue supporting the police, the NYPD. There are very fully resourced. There’s a lot of cops. We don’t need more police.
A democratic mayor, a black mayor who represents our city, who represents our diverse patient population, the diverse community that we have, is cutting funds to things that people need.
People are desperate. People don’t have food. People don’t have air conditioning during a heat crisis. They don’t have childcare. They’re left taking care of their children. Their children are not getting the education they should be getting, not getting the supervision they should be getting. This is what he should be investing in. So tomorrow we are doing an action. We will be reading a letter signed by multiple physicians from different city hospitals demanding that the mayor fund public hospitals. Every New Yorker deserves adequate healthcare. It doesn’t matter what your class, your insurance, your race, your ethnicity, it doesn’t matter. You come to a New York City hospital, we should be able to take care of you.