As the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations rises to the point where hospitals will soon be unable to take care of more patients, Mississippi’s health care system is in trouble.
Mississippi’s vaccination rate is the lowest of all states in the United States and one of the states with the highest number of cases. This is a perfect storm for increasing hospitalization. On Wednesday, the state’s largest healthcare system warned that it was on the verge of failure.
“If we continue this trajectory in the next 5 to 7 to 10 days, I think we will see the Mississippi hospital system fail,” said Dr. Alan Jones, vice president of the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). Affairs, said at the press conference.
Since mid-July, the number of Mississippi hospitalized with COVID-19 has been steadily increasing, as has the number of patients using ventilators and intensive care units. To help deal with the influx of cases, UMMC is building a field hospital in the parking lot that can accommodate up to 50 COVID-19 patients. UMMC’s vice-principal, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, called it a “Band-Aid”, partly because staffing an extra bed is still a challenge.
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At the beginning of the pandemic, many states gave up certain requirements so that people who left the medical field or medical students could join the workforce to help reduce the pressure on medical staff. Since the crisis broke out for more than a year, many medical staff have been exhausted or have left the medical field to take care of their mental health, which has exacerbated an already serious problem.
Lee McCall, chief executive of the Nesuba County General Hospital, sent an urgent request to Mississippi Republican Governor Tate Reeves on Tuesday.
McCall said on Twitter: “We are overwhelmed by the surge in Covid and are understaffed to safely take care of our patients. Our incredible staff is bringing it together, but we are all On the verge of collapse.”
Reeves refutes his government’s criticism of not actively participating in the COVID-19 response. Facebook His team “is making calm decisions based on the best available data to manage the situation and mitigate its impact on our employees.” He called protecting the Mississippi health care system his “first goal” and claimed to be hospitalized The number is lower than the state’s August 2020 peak.
But data from the Mississippi State Department of Health shows that this is not the case. By the end of July 2020, the number of hospitalizations for the coronavirus reached a peak of 989, and the peak was 977 in August of the same year. On Monday, there were 1,410 people.
In his Facebook message, Reeves acknowledged that the shortage of beds and ventilators-a problem in the early stages of the pandemic-is not a key issue for the current surge in Mississippi. According to Reeves, the state lost 2,000 nurses last year, causing a labor shortage. Reeves said that to help alleviate this problem, Mississippi asked other states to increase staff and began signing contracts with private entities to build a workforce.
Data shows that most of the hospitalized patients across the country are unvaccinated people. Reeves cites the popular saying that Mississippi is facing an “unvaccinated pandemic.” The vaccination rate in Mississippi has increased in recent weeks, and the governor urged people to get vaccinated.
State health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs predicted that as the Delta variant spreads, the number of hospitalizations will increase, and expressed frustration for those who have not been vaccinated on Wednesday. At the press conference, he linked his work with that of an air traffic controller, and he “watched two passenger planes collide” every day.
“Please be safe! Hospitals and emergency rooms exceed capacity,” Dobbs said Twitter Thursday.
