National Guard members to help Uniondale care facility facing staff shortage

National Guard members will be deployed to the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care facility in Uniondale to help with staffing shortages caused by the pandemic.
According to the New York National Guard, under the direction of Gov. Kathy Hochul, 120 National Guard personnel who are medically trained have been identified to alleviate staff shortages across the state.
A. Holly Patterson Extended Care is one of 11 facilities in the state that have been identified so far.
NuHealth, which operates Nassau University Medical Center and A. Holly Patterson, claims there is no staffing problem at their facilities.
NuHealth's CEO Dr. Anthony Boutin says, "NUMC is helping New York State by having the National Guard train at NUMC and A. Holly Patterson Extended Care to help other facilities who are overwhelmed with staffing shortages and increased COVID cases."
"Our people are trained as the equivalent of EMTs, except one difference — people are shooting at you. These are medics on the battlefield and in evacuation flight,” says Eric Durr, a spokesperson for the New York National Guard.
A spokesperson for the state Department of Health says arrangements have been made to deploy National Guard medical teams to 11 nursing homes and extended care facilities across New York.
The exact date of when the team will be deployed to the Uniondale facility has not yet been released.