NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York’s National Guard has deployed 120 Army Medics and Air Force medical techs to a dozen nursing homes and long-term care facilities to help ease staffing shortages.
The move comes after Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the sending of troops on Dec. 1.
The troops are being federally funded, and had previously been staffing 13 vaccination and six logistics sites, as well as assembling test kits.
Among the places guardmembers are reporting to include Uniondale on Long Island. Most of the remainder of the places they’re headed to are upstate, like Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Buffalo, Utica and Plattsburgh.
In Uniondale, troops are headed to A. Holly Patterson Extended Care facility, where officials said they do not have a staffing shortage, but will allow them to train in order to help elsewhere, according to News 12 Long Island.
Officials selected trained medics or medical techs who weren’t also working in the health care field as civilians.
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“It makes no sense to take a young woman who is an Air Force med-tech and works at a hospital out of that job, only to place her in another health care facility,” said Brigadier Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, director of joint operations for the state’s National Guard.
According to the National Guard, one 12-person team that includes 11 Army Guard medics has trained as nurses assistants to fill in staffing gaps in Buffalo.
In March 2020, 200 soldiers and airmen went on-duty in response to the early days of the pandemic.
According to National Guard officials, their personnel have administered over 120,000 COVID-19 vaccinations, put together over 14 million test kits and established the largest mass vaccination site in the U.S.
Maine called on its National Guard Wednesday, activating 75 members to work in non-clinical support roles, according to officials.
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