First of all, it will be disrupted by staff getting virus exposure and having to sit out for 14 days each time. Example: I travelled 9 days ago before all this crap started and now have to sit out and wait until my 14 days are up.
Also nobody is having anything elective done. Colonoscopies, routine visits, hip replacements, basic outpatient things, dental work, elective surgery, cancer surveillance work, etc. everyone is putting it all on hold. Nobody is giving blood so we are facing immediate blood shortages.
Sure the intensive care specialists and ED docs will be busy. Everybody else -not so much.
I don't think that counts as "healthcare taking a hit." More healthcare workers are likely to catch it than anyone else, of course. This will further reduce our capacity, resulting in OT. Postponing elective surgeries is largely about freeing up respirators. Hopefully we don't enter a phase where we don't have enough pulmonary therapists; that would be ... bad. As in, picking which large groups of people to let die while focusing available resources on those that can be saved. DJT may have to play god-emperor, deciding who lives and who dies. Not sure he could recover from that..
It's not reasonable to expect layoffs in healthcare while this remains a possible scenario. This imbalance of supply also might be why orders for more respirators haven't been placed; they already realize the real shortage is in respiratory therapists. Hopefully they're focusing on making sure they're all trained in best practices for these extreme circumstances, which can reduce deaths while on respirator from 41/100 to 16/100. This is serious!
Health care will take a hit as well.
First of all, it will be disrupted by staff getting virus exposure and having to sit out for 14 days each time. Example: I travelled 9 days ago before all this crap started and now have to sit out and wait until my 14 days are up.
Also nobody is having anything elective done. Colonoscopies, routine visits, hip replacements, basic outpatient things, dental work, elective surgery, cancer surveillance work, etc. everyone is putting it all on hold. Nobody is giving blood so we are facing immediate blood shortages.
Sure the intensive care specialists and ED docs will be busy. Everybody else -not so much.
I don't think that counts as "healthcare taking a hit." More healthcare workers are likely to catch it than anyone else, of course. This will further reduce our capacity, resulting in OT. Postponing elective surgeries is largely about freeing up respirators. Hopefully we don't enter a phase where we don't have enough pulmonary therapists; that would be ... bad. As in, picking which large groups of people to let die while focusing available resources on those that can be saved. DJT may have to play god-emperor, deciding who lives and who dies. Not sure he could recover from that..
It's not reasonable to expect layoffs in healthcare while this remains a possible scenario. This imbalance of supply also might be why orders for more respirators haven't been placed; they already realize the real shortage is in respiratory therapists. Hopefully they're focusing on making sure they're all trained in best practices for these extreme circumstances, which can reduce deaths while on respirator from 41/100 to 16/100. This is serious!