Just some perspective on the NHS crisis…..this all sounds very familiar…….and yet it’s in the US and not an apparently poverty stricken NHS…..patients in tents, store rooms, operations cancelled and ambulances unable to unload patients…..
California hospitals face a ‘war zone’ of flu patients — and are setting up tents to treat them
An influenza A strain known as H3N2 is making people so ill in California that thousands have shown up in recent weeks at hospitals struggling to fight the infection.
The huge numbers of sick people are also straining hospital staff who are confronting what could become California’s worst flu season in a decade.
Hospitals across the state are sending away ambulances, flying in nurses from out of state and not letting children visit their loved ones for fear they’ll spread the flu. Others are canceling surgeries and erecting tents in their parking lots so they can triage the hordes of flu patients.
Connie Cunningham and her staff at Loma Linda University Medical Center were triaging so many flu patients after New Year’s that they assembled what looks like a giant, brown camping tent in their emergency room parking lot. Several hospitals in California are treating flu patients in so-called “surge tents” intended for major disasters.
“It’s like trying to surf a tsunami,” said Dr. Brian Johnston, an emergency medicine doctor at White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights. “Maybe the wave has crested, one hopes.”
Now they’re running low on beds because many patients were admitted with severe flu. Gunnett said she has started canceling scheduled surgeries and turning single-patient rooms into doubles to free up space.
At Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, hospital staff noticed flu cases were mounting and began clearing out an area that was being used as storage.
“It seems like we’re setting a record almost every day,” said Dr. Dave Feldman, medical director of the emergency department.
On Thursday, the former storage area opened as an extension of the emergency room.
Now they’re running low on beds because many patients were admitted with severe flu. Gunnett said she has started canceling scheduled surgeries and turning single-patient rooms into doubles to free up space.
At Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, hospital staff noticed flu cases were mounting and began clearing out an area that was being used as storage.
“It seems like we’re setting a record almost every day,” said Dr. Dave Feldman, medical director of the emergency department.
On Thursday, the former storage area opened as an extension of the emergency room.
It should be noted, of course, that this is the Democrat failed state of California. The state that supports illegal immigrants and has one of the largest exoduses of people in the USA:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-17/californias-homeless-problem-revealed-one-incredible-video
Will the Red Cross get involved like they did with the disaster of the NHS?
Definitely one for the 13 000 000 000 overseas tax giveaway budget
Eire. Sweden and Poland have all experienced bed shortages at their hospitals due to the flu.
One thing’s for certain…………..you will not see Katty/Sopel or any other bBC wallah covering this story!