Northwell Health has fired 1,400 employees who refused to get COVID-19 shots.Healthcare workers in the state have to be vaccinated against COVID-19.- Healthcare providers across the US are firing staff who refuse to comply with vaccine mandates.
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A spokesman for Northwell Health told The New York Times that the company's goal "was to get people vaccinated, not to get people terminated."
Under New York's vaccine mandate, all healthcare staff must have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. As of September 29, 87% of New York hospital workers were fully vaccinated, up from 84% seven days before, the state said.
Some state and healthcare officials have warned that mandates could exacerbate staffing shortages in hospitals and other medical facilities.
The 1,400 employees fired by Northwell account for about 2% of its workforce. Northwell has around 77,000 employees across 23 hospitals and more than 830 outpatient facilities.
Karen Roses was among the staff fired from Northwell. A former patient care technician at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, New York, she told Insider that she refused to get the shot and was fired the day after the statewide mandate came into force.
Northwell said in a statement to Insider that it had taken a "rapid, aggressive approach" and that its workforce was now fully vaccinated. This would allow it to "provide exceptional care at all of our hospitals, without interruption and enable all our facilities to remain open and fully operational," it added.
The spokesperson told The Times that some Northwell staff who were dismissed for failing to comply with the mandate had since been vaccinated and returned to their jobs. The spokesperson said that terminated workers were given 30 days to interview for reinstatement, although that the company was "openly recruiting" for the newly vacant jobs.
Healthcare providers across the US have fired staff who refuse to comply with vaccine mandates. Houston Methodist Hospital said in June that it had lost 153 workers who either quit or were fired. North Carolina's Novant Health said last week that it had fired around 175 members of staff.
That same day that the New York mandate for hospital staff came into effect, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order making more people eligible to work in healthcare. Her office also said she was considering deploying medically-trained National Guard members to alleviate staff shortages.
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