Posted on 05/01/2020 1:40:16 AM PDT by grundle
All across the country, huge numbers of hospitals have laid off huge numbers of health care workers. Here are some news headlines about this:
Coronavirus financial losses prompt Boston Medical Center to furlough 700 employees, 10% of hospital’s workforce
https://www.kentucky.com/news/coronavirus/article241565211.html
Kentucky hospital chain furloughs about 500 employees as coronavirus saps business
https://www.sungazette.com/news/top-news/2020/04/a-mounting-casualty-crisis-health-care-jobs/
A mounting casualty crisis: Health care jobs
Four West Virginia hospitals lay off hundreds because of coronavirus-related shrinking revenues
Thousands of US medical workers furloughed, laid off as routine patient visits drop during coronavirus pandemic
I Can’t Get My Hip Surgery Because Of Coronavirus Even Though Nobody Is In Our Hospital
MUSC Health lays off 900 due to COVID-19 financial strain
Oklahoma City hospital closed amid coronavirus spread
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/coronavirus-victim-americas-largest-health-systems/story?id=70317683
Even nation’s largest health systems laying off health care workers amid COVID pandemic
https://nypost.com/2020/04/27/were-destroying-hospitals-in-the-name-of-fighting-the-coronavirus/
We’re destroying hospitals in the name of fighting the coronavirus
https://www.foxnews.com/science/mayo-clinic-furlough-or-cut-pay-employees
Mayo Clinic to furlough or cut pay of 30,000 employees
Coronavirus testing company Quest Diagnostics furloughs workers
Meanwhile, the governors in more than 30 states have banned elective medical procedures.
The word “elective” refers to any medical procedure that is scheduled in advance.
Examples of elective medical procedures that have been postponed or canceled include cancer treatment, organ transplants, and hip surgery.
However, some of the governors that have banned elective medical procedures have given an exemption to abortion.
For example, Politico reported:
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was one of a handful of Democratic leaders to explicitly carve out an exception for “the full range of family planning services and procedures, including terminations of pregnancies” from his executive order that suspends elective surgeries.
As another example, the Lansing State Journal reported:
Reproductive health clinics in Michigan are still providing abortion services, citing an exemption for “pregnancy-related visits and procedures” in Gov. Whitmer’s executive order restricting non-essential medical services.
Likewise, the New Boston Post reported:
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has exempted elective abortions from the statewide ban on elective surgery during the coronavirus precautionary restrictions.
Furthermore, Virginia’s official government website reported:
Governor Ralph Northam and State Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver, MD, MA today directed all hospitals to stop performing elective surgeries or procedures…
The public health emergency order does not apply to… family planning services
Also, the Washington Free Beacon reported:
Pennsylvania Allows Planned Parenthood to Perform Abortions Despite Elective Surgery Ban
So I have three questions about all of this:
1) Why did huge numbers of hospitals across the country lay off huge numbers of health care workers?
2) Why did most governors ban elective medical procedures?
3) Why did several of those governors give an exemption to abortion?
Because they are sick bastards. I won’t be voting for my republican Governor in New Hampshire this year. He never mentions small businesses and how the state will help them. He only cares about the state employees and teachers union. I should have known he was a rino when he got mad at us for passing out trump flyers with his during the 2018 midterms .
1. Because you only have so many beds for critically ill WuhanFlu patients and all of the rest of the spaces are idle. People being scared to death by “expert” predictions of millions of deaths didn’t help things.
2. They were afraid of people going into the hospital for a minor procedure and coming out with WuhanFlu. Hospitals already are notorious for killing perfectly healthy people who caught illnesses they didn’t have when they went into the hospital.
3. The political pressure from abortion providers is greater than the political pressure of lobbyists representing people who need elective surgery.
4. There wasn’t enough PPE for all medical professionals.
Elective surgery was the ‘bread and butter’ of the hospital economy. People are seriously fearful now of walking into a hospital unless it’s absolutely an emergency. You go walk into hospital unit and ask about the normal incoming for elective surgery....presently, it’s probably 1-percent of the normal rate.
Now, sit and think over this....if these doctors with $250,000 in schooling debt can’t produce any ‘business’....how long will this cycle last before their little economy collapses?
Lack of PPE isn’t a factor in layoffs at all. Lack of patients is.
I had an appointment for a tooth extraction ... cancelled.
Coronavirus is the second impeachment: all the hype is geared to elect Biden.
“I won’t be voting for my republican Governor in New Hampshire this year.”
Ditto for me in Arizona. I think a lot of politicians have shown their true colors, and that may be a silver lining to the virus. I hope it shows in November...
Question 2 answers Question 1.
Question 3 is because Abortion is the Koran for radical progressive democrats.
The fake Russia - Mueller witch hunt was an impeachment attempt, too.
Hey, at least he kept the liquor stores open. I can't get a friggin' haircut, but I can get all the booze I want. I can't wait for this covid scam to be over.
Even RINOs fear the next election.
New Hampshire is being swamped by tax-damaged retirees from NY and NJ. (Massachusetts a given).
The CCP-Virus will swell their numbers even more—and faster.
The answer to your first question is that most hospitals were at 50% capacity for two months. This means a hospital with 200 beds, is—all of a sudden—is 100 beds. So you don’t need the staff to support 100 beds. Or the support staff. Or the cleaning crews, transport, marketing, wound care, telecom, bio-medical engineering staff, etc.
And with no elective surgery, there is no need for OR Nurses. OR techs, sterilization folks, med surg beds, nurses, administrative, billing, and surgeons.
That is why hospitals are furloughing people.
Meanwhile, in places like NYC, where my nurse anesthetist friend was furloughed in the middle of March, the mayor and governor were begging for nurses from other states to come help out. Great idea! Make the ones you have stay at home, and then bring in other nurses so that they can go back to infect their own home states when they’re finished with their contract. So smart. Ugh.
A nurse anesthetist is not a floor nurse. They could not pay her the hourly rate of an NA on the floor without upsetting the Union. And she couldn’t work per dime in her hospital at a lower rate while an employee.
I know...it sounds crazy. My guess is she worked in the med/surg area. Probably along with OR nurses and Surg techs. Our place laid them off as well.
Even in a war, the unions rule the roost.
then why the hell are these perfectly healthy people coming to the hospital if they are "perfectly healthy"????
but the real answer to the first two questions is that TPTB wanted all the empty beds saved for the "surge" and thus all surgeries except for emergencies were cancelled, idling many many nurses, nurses aides, etc.....
we will have bankrupt hospitals when this is all said and done....govt does not have enough money to prevent it....
Because they are going in for unrelated procedures and getting infections while they are there. If you want to play semantics to make excuses for hospitals that's your business but you can't justify it. play word games with this
Yes, I’m sure you’re right, but it’s still BS.
I feel your pain quite literally. I’m having dental problems and probably need a tooth pulled. They will give me antibiotics but that is it right now.
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