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Q&A

Chair Lee on H&H savings and temporary staffing reductions

New York City Council · Jun 5, 2026 · starts 4:27:40 · 1 min 44 sec

Lee asks about the $14.1M savings from reducing temporary staffing. Katz confirms no service decrease, as successful hiring has eliminated temporary lines. Lee asks about physician overtime; Katz says successful physician hiring has decreased overtime dramatically.

Linda Lee

Thank you.

Linda Lee

Great, thank you so much.

Linda Lee

And we've also been joined by Councilmember Areola on Zoom.

Linda Lee

And with that, I'm gonna try to zip through my questions and then pass it off to Chair Narcisse.

Linda Lee

So,

Linda Lee

In terms of the executive plan and the savings on the executive plan, it included $14.1 million starting in FY26 and baseline to reach $27 million by FY28.

Linda Lee

And we were told that these savings would be achieved by reducing reliance on temporary staffing, which you just mentioned, reducing overtime.

Linda Lee

How has this maybe impacted or hopefully not impact the reliance on temporary staffing as part of the savings exercise?

Dr. Mitch Katz

I'm happy to say that it has not affected us.

Dr. Mitch Katz

These were cuts that we could do without, in part because we've been so successful now in hiring, we have been able to eliminate the temporary lines.

Dr. Mitch Katz

And so there's no decrease in service associated with that decrease in $14 million.

Linda Lee

Perfect.

Linda Lee

And just as we have been saying on the council, definitely great to hear that services are not going to be impacted because obviously that's not what we want to see.

Linda Lee

So thank you for that.

Linda Lee

And were H&H medical staff part of the discussions on reducing overtime?

Dr. Mitch Katz

Correct.

Dr. Mitch Katz

Right.

Dr. Mitch Katz

We always work to try to make sure they are too.

Dr. Mitch Katz

Physician overtime.

Dr. Mitch Katz

is a symptom of not being able to hire enough full-time physicians.

Dr. Mitch Katz

And we've had a very successful year now of hiring physicians.

Dr. Mitch Katz

And so the amount of overtime we need to use has decreased dramatically.

Linda Lee

Okay, perfect.