Health chief says sorry for cop slam

The city’s beleaguered health commissioner issued a public apology to the NYPD on Monday, after being blasted for a spat with the Finest.

“I apologize to the NYPD for leaving any impression whatsoever that I don’t have utmost respect for our Police Department, which plays a critical role on the frontlines each and every day to keep our city safe,” Dr. Oxiris Barbot said in the statement.

The mea culpa came after revelations of a tense midMarch exchange between Barbot and Chief of Detectives Terence Monahan.

Barbot (inset) told him, “I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops” over the phone as they argued over an unauthorized bid by officers to commandeer about 500,000 N95 masks meant for overwhelmed frontline health care workers, according to sources. Revelations of the remarks prompted chiding from the mayor and broadsides from police unions.

“No public servant should ever in any way say anything disrespectful about the men and women of the NYPD,” de Blasio said last week.

The Sergeants Benevolent Association went off on a vulgar tirade and demanded Barbot be fired, though NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said he didn’t support such a move.

“The members of the NYPD fight valiantly every day to keep New Yorkers safe,” Barbot said in her Monday statement. “In mid-March, I was asked to provide the NYPD with a half-million N95 masks, while masks and other PPE were in terribly short supply. I wished we had sufficient numbers to meet their full request and were ultimately able to partially fulfill what was sought. This regrettably led to an argument in which words were exchanged between a police official and myself.”

“I apologized to that police official then, and today I apologize to the NYPD,” she added.