Gov. Cuomo doubled down Sunday on the state’s controversial directive ordering nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients.
The governor — who himself has described nursing homes as a “feeding frenzy’’ for the deadly coronavirus — said that the facilities can’t challenge a state regulation forcing them to admit patients with the contagion.
But he insisted that nursing homes could transfer those ill with the virus to another facility if the centers lacked such things as quarantine space, proper protective equipment and staff.
Asked by a reporter at his daily briefing Sunday if there was anything contradictory about his statements, the governor replied, “No.”
“A nursing home can only provide care for a patient who they believe they can provide adequate care for,’’ Cuomo said. “If they cannot provide adequate care for a patient, they must transfer that patient.”
He said that if the nursing home can’t find another adequate facility, it should call the state Department of Health.
“I have John, I don’t know where to send John,’’ Cuomo said of a possible nursing-home scenario. “Call the DOH, we’ll find a place for John. That’s how it works.
“We have vacancies in nursing homes and facilities,’’ the governor said.
The CEO of a hard-hit Brooklyn nursing home, where 55 patients have died from the coronavirus, told The Post last week that he’d been warning state Health Department officials for weeks he had staffing and equipment issues — yet received little help.
“There is no way for us to prevent the spread under these conditions,’’ the head of the Cobble Hill Health Center, Donny Tuchman, wrote in an e-mail to the department on April 8.
He said he asked to move some patients to the makeshift wards at Manhattan’s Javits Center and aboard the city-docked USNS Comfort amid the pandemic, only to be told those two spots were receiving only patients from hospitals.
“I made specific requests to transfer patients, and it didn’t happen,’’ Tuchman told The Post. “There weren’t options.”
The state said at the time that the facility was “able to meet basic needs under the directive — which included having adequate facilities.’’
State health workers also “conducted a focus survey at Cobble Hill and found no deficient practices,’’ a rep said.
“Additionally, as we track inventory for all facilities daily, our records indicate they have more than a week’s supply of N95 masks, two months’ supply of surgical masks, and nearly two weeks’ supply of gloves,” the spokesman added.
At least 3,500 nursing-home residents in the state have died from the coronavirus to date, including 2,000 in New York City, part of more than 16,000 overall.
Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan and Carl Campanile
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