Good morning and welcome to Monday's New York Health Care newsletter, where we keep you posted on what's coming up this week in health care news, and offer a look back at the important news from last week.

Over 7,000 nurses across the city went on strike Monday morning, after their union failed to secure new contract agreements demanding increased staffing levels at Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital.

The New York State Nurses Association was unable to agree on a deal during overnight bargaining sessions with Mount Sinai or Montefiore management, union and hospital officials announced.

“We appreciate solidarity from our patients — but going into the hospital to get the care you need is NOT crossing our strike line,” the union said in a statement early Monday.

“In fact, we invite you to come join us on the strike line after you've gotten the care you need.”

The union had notified the hospitals on Dec. 30 that they planned to strike in 10 days if they could not reach a deal before then to renew their contracts, which expired at the end of 2022. Since then, it withdrew strike authorizations about a half dozen other city hospitals — including Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West — after reaching tentative three-year agreements.

Gov. Kathy Hochul made a last-ditch effort Sunday night to avert a strike by calling on the hospitals and union to enter arbitration. Both hospitals promptly agreed, but the union declined to rescind its strike notice or commit to an arbitration process.

“Nurses don’t want to strike,” a union spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. “Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients."

The union is also demanding a binding way to enforce the increased staffing levels. But Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore management touted their offer of a 19.1% compounded wage increase, which nurses at other hospitals had accepted

Monday’s strike is one of the biggest the country has seen. In September about 15,000 hospital nurses in Minnesota walked off the job after marking two years without a contract, in what their union called the "largest private-sector nurses' strike in U.S. history." Nurses in Hawaii and California also went on strike last year.

ON THE AGENDA THIS WEEK:

— The City Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor holds a hearing Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. on Introduction 874, relating to health insurance coverage for city employees, city retirees and their dependents.

— The NYC Health Department’s Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness hosts a discussion Tuesday about reimagining institutional accountability in public health.

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HOCHUL AND ADAMS’ MAJOR TEST — POLITICO’s Danielle Muoio Dunn and Anna Gronewold: Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have repeatedly touted the strength of their relationship. Now, their ability to execute a shared vision as two moderates will face its biggest test as they seek to enact a sweeping legislative agenda to stimulate the economic recovery of the nation’s largest city in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Doing sowill require cooperation from the more liberal leanings of the state Legislature and City Council that haven't always seen eye-to-eye with their respective executives on major issues of policy. But Hochul and Adams are banking that a unified approach will move the needle on a number of top items from changes to the state’s controversial laws ending cash bail to a rapid increase in housing development in a state controlled entirely by Democrats.

CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION — POLITICO’s Joe Spector: New York may have lost three House seats, but the state can now stake claim to two of the four top leaders in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries plan to use their dual roles to apply lessons learned from that defeat and help refine their party's message in 2024.

"My view is the state Democratic Party should complete the after-action analysis, that I understand to be underway, and ascertain what happened in this most recent midterm elections — what was done right, what was done wrong and how do we maximize performance so we can be successful in 2024," Jeffries said in a telephone interview.

NOW WE KNOW — Heart screening may not have prevented Damar Hamlin’s collapse.

TODAY’S TIP — Unfortunately, a ‘dry January’ is actually good for your health, experts say.

STUDY THIS — A trend of corporate investment in primary care could threaten equitable access to care, raise costs and reduce physicians’ clinical autonomy, researchers write in the New England Journal of Medicine.

— Many cancer trials bar patients over age 65; the Wall Street Journal’s Amy Dockser Marcus reports on the 71-year-old cancer patient who challenged the limit.

— A year after a nurse’s loss to suicide, his friends are building out a peer support network, STAT reports.

— Kaiser Health News reports that more orthopedic physicians are selling their practices to private equity firms, catching up with other specialists.

— The U.S. has a shortage of medical examiners.

— Via POLITICO’s Ben Leonard:The fight over how to deliver bad news to patients.

— Covid-19 cases are spiking as a new variant spreads across the country, Daniel Payne and Dan Goldberg report. The latest surge, likely worsened by holiday gatherings, comes as the number of vaccines administered hits a three-month lull.

— Eisai requests FDA approval of a new Alzheimer's drug, Katherine Ellen Foley reports.

— POLITICO’s Mona Zhang reports on a new study finding that medical cannabis use led to a decrease in consumption of both prescription and over-the-counter painkillers.

MISSED A ROUNDUP? Get caught up on the New York Health Care Newsletter.