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Politico
30-06-2025
- Climate
- Politico
Strained city EMS workforce feels the heat
Beat Memo A scorching heat wave last week is shining a spotlight on New York City's strained emergency medical response system. FDNY EMS Local 2507, the union for thousands of emergency medical technicians and paramedics, responded to over 20,000 medical emergencies over the sweltering four-day span. On Primary Day, the number of medical emergency calls was 20 percent higher than average, according to the union. City Health Department data shows that emergency department visits for heat-related illnesses peaked Wednesday at 141, while 112 New Yorkers showed up at hospitals the day before. The heightened demand for emergency medical responses meant some calls had to be placed on hold, while others waited up to three hours for an ambulance to arrive, union president Oren Barzilay said. 'Every day, FDNY EMS members are struggling to keep up with exceedingly high call volumes with an underappreciated and underinvested in workforce,' Barzilay said in a statement. The Fire Department told one news outlet that it responded to about 1,000 more calls per day than usual, noting that calls were prioritized so the neediest New Yorkers got help as soon as possible. Each summer, more than 500 people die prematurely because of hot weather in New York City, according to the city Health Department — and summers are getting hotter because of climate change. And that's only exacerbating retention issues among the city's EMS workforce, which has gone without a union contract for three years, Barzilay said. Emergency response times have risen in recent years due to a lack of emergency medical technicians and paramedics as well as a smaller pipeline of potential recruits, the Mayor's Management Report found in January 2025. 'Heat waves like this only exacerbate this fundamental issue,' he said in a statement. 'It's why there is such a massive burnout and stress among our membership, who are providing lifesaving medical care and transport each day in neighborhoods across our city.' IN OTHER NEWS: — Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation Friday that authorizes certain health care professionals licensed outside New York to treat participants in specific sporting events: the Ironman Lake Placid 2025 or an event sanctioned by the New York Road Runners. 'With world-class athletes traveling and competing across the state, New York wants to ensure they have the best care,' Hochul said in a statement. 'This legislation not only provides more opportunities for health care professionals, but it also allows athletes to have top-of-the-line care during their events.' — Northwell's Center for Gun Violence Prevention received $200,000 in gifts to expand research into the root causes of gun violence and to support development of a national toolkit for health systems to implement gun violence prevention initiatives. ON THE AGENDA: — Tuesday, 10:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. The Public Health and Health Planning Council's health planning committee will convene. MAKING ROUNDS: — Andrew T. Pickens was appointed executive director of western region hospitals for the Westchester Medical Center Health Network. GOT TIPS? Send story ideas and feedback to Maya Kaufman at mkaufman@ and Katelyn Cordero at kcordero@ Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. Odds and Ends NOW WE KNOW — Some cost-conscious Americans are making their own weight-loss drugs. TODAY'S TIP — How to protect yourself from ticks. STUDY THIS — Black and Hispanic patients with opioid use disorder were 'significantly less likely' to receive the medication buprenorphine, especially if they had commercial insurance, researchers found. What We're Reading — U.S. charges 11 in Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare of $10.6 billion. (New York Times) — Too sick to work, some Americans worry Trump's bill will strip their health insurance. (KFF Health News) — People whose lives were permanently altered by disease send a warning as vaccine opposition grows. (AP) Around POLITICO — Via POLITICO's Erin Schumaker: RFK Jr. is bringing psychedelics to the Republican Party. — House GOP moderates dig in against Senate Medicaid cuts, Meredith Lee Hill and Nicholas Wu report. MISSED A ROUNDUP? Get caught up on the New York Health Care Newsletter.
New York Times
25-06-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
Soaring Temperatures in N.Y.C. Land More Than 100 in Emergency Rooms
Soaring temperatures sent more than 100 people to emergency rooms in New York City for heat-related illnesses on Tuesday, the hottest day in more than a decade, according to data from city health officials. The temperature on Tuesday reached a sweltering 99 degrees at Belvedere Castle in Central Park, where the city's official weather station is. A thermometer there last reached that temperature in 2012. It was hotter elsewhere in the city, reaching 102 degrees at Kennedy International Airport in Queens, marking the hottest June day at the airport since its opening in 1948. On Tuesday, the City Health Department logged 112 visits to hospital emergency rooms related to the heat, the most in a single day since July 20, 2019, when a heat wave also sent 112 patients to E.R.s for heat-related illness. The condition includes heat exhaustion, muscle cramps, fainting and, most seriously, heat stroke, according to the Health Department. Monday, another steamy day, also saw an unusual number of heat-sickened patients turn up at hospitals in the city: 70. A spokeswoman for the City Health Department said no information was available on whether any New Yorkers died from heat stroke on Tuesday. In the last five years, there have been only three days when more than 50 patients were brought to E.R.s because of the heat, excluding this week. On average, five people die from heat stroke each year in New York City. Those deaths are directly blamed on the heat. From 2014 to 2023, about 45 percent of the people who died from heat stroke were at home — and their homes typically lacked air-conditioning. A comparable share of heat-related deaths involved people who suffered heat stroke while outside. Seven percent involved people in parked cars, and a single death came from exposure to heat on a subway platform. Nearly 15 percent of people who died from heat stroke were homeless, according to the city's most recent Heat-Related Mortality Report. While deaths directly attributable to the heat receive the most attention, the heat is indirectly responsible for about 520 premature deaths each year by exacerbating heart disease or another chronic condition, according to the City Health Department. Citywide, about 89 percent of homes have air conditioning. But in some neighborhoods the rate is lower, closer to 80 percent, according to a report by the city comptroller.
