The Westchester and Bronx Society of Black Physicians (WBSBP), an affiliate of the National Medical Association (NMA), was created and dedicated to serve our community of people of color. Today in the midst of this terrible, catastrophic pandemic, it is more imperative now than ever that we address the needs of our fellow physicians and help to educate our community. This pandemic is disproportionately affecting people of color at a higher rate, with devastating results within our community. The healthcare disparity that has always existed in our society is much more pronounced as our people are dying by the thousands every day. We need to reflect and take actions as health care givers to help change that. As this pandemic known as COVID-19 continues to cause havoc in our community and beyond, we urge each and every one of us to remain vigilant and to take all the necessary precautions to ward off this dangerous virus.
We are encouraging our Physician colleagues to join at this time with no membership fees during this crisis in order to encourage collaboration, education, and more importantly organize access to our communities to make a positive impact. We are embarking on a process to have our practitioners actively build their telehealth structures so that they may receive patients, bill for their services and have an active format to advertise their services.
I also want to take the time to pay homage to all the healthcare workers, our colleagues, that are on the front line of this battle and especially those who have lost their lives while doing what we all love - caring for patients. We salute you!
Together we will get through this.