Resident physicians, interns rally for new contract with Sutter Health
After a year of contract negotiations with Sutter Health company for an increase in wages and on-site security, dozens of medical interns and resident physicians rallied in protest at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco on Monday.
They were joined by San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, District 5, as well as a dozen members of the carpenters Service Employees International Union.
"Shame on you for putting forward and insulting 1% a year," said Preston, referring to the latest offer from Sutter for a 3% wage increase over three years.
"At the end of the day, you've got to pay the rent, and it's pretty damn hard to do that when you're facing $200,000 to $500,000 worth of debt," said Preston to the crowd. "Sometimes when people think about doctors, they think about people that earn a lot. They don't think about all the money that residents have to pay in debt and then turn around and try to pay their rent."
A resident physician is someone who has graduated from medical school and is completing a post-graduate training program. They are paid quite differently than the board-certified attending physicians who supervise them, although they are often considered to be the frontline of medical care.
"I'm paid the same for 80 hours as I am for 40 hours a week," said psychiatry resident physician Chris Domanski, who makes $75,000 a year with no overtime. About 50% of his salary goes to rent, he said. He shares an apartment in Lower Pacific Heights that rents for $4,400 a month.
According to California's Department of Housing and Community Development, affordable housing costs for lower-income households is defined in state law as no more than 30% of gross household income.
Domanski takes care of six or seven patients at a time in the psychiatric care department, where the atmosphere can get violent, he said, especially at night. One of the conditions he is pulling for is security guards on site 24/7.
"It can take four or five minutes for a security guard to make their way up to our floor," he said. Over a year ago, someone was assaulted and suffered a brain injury. A few weeks ago, someone was caught in a chokehold, he said.
"I'm a doctor, but I'm also a brand-new father," said Domanski at the rally. "I have a 3-month-old son at home, and every day I wake up I worry if today's the day I'm going to be assaulted? Is today the day I can't come home to my son?"
A Sutter Health spokesperson said it invested nearly $40 million in the inpatient psychiatric unit at California Pacific Medical Center to retrofit the new inpatient psychiatric space and enhance safety and security at the facility, including state-of-the-art security camera and alarm technology, in-room and under-the-counter duress alarms, camera monitoring at the in-unit nurse station and a dedicated in-unit security officer for the peak hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.
Following the pandemic, several San Francisco medial employees joined the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local organization of the Service Employees International Union. CIR represents over 34,000 resident physicians and fellows in the U.S., according to their public statement.
"I've been a resident here for a little over a year now, and in my time here I have thrown up at work and continued working because we do not have sick leave," said Niloufar Khanna, a resident in internal medicine who shares and apartment in the Western Edition District for $2900 a month.
"I had a close family member pass away my intern year and I got exactly one day off to go to their funeral," she said. "I currently live in an apartment in an unsafe area. I have been followed home from work. I have had my apartment broken into because I cannot afford a safer place to live."
"Note that this is a first contract between this resident group and the hospital, so many bargaining items are being raised, discussed and established for the very first time," said Sutter in an email. "We've held 21 bargaining sessions so far and reached 42 tentative agreements with the union. While we share our residents' desire to reach a contract quickly, it's crucial that we carefully review each proposal and assess its potential impact on hospital and long-term operations."