Colorado blue-check doc tweets DAMNING thread about COVID policies and how they made hospitals WORSE

Hospitals are NOT alright.

If you’ve been in any ER or hospital in the last three years (crazy, right?!) you know hospitals are a hot mess. While our pals in the pro-SHUT THE WORLD DOWN IT’S A KILLER VIRUS group would have us believe the issues stem from being overwhelmed with COVID patients … that’s simply not the case.

Sai Medi, a doctor out of Colorado per his bio, put together a ‘terrifying’ and eye-opening thread about what’s actually happening here:

The hospitals are not alright.

🧵 (1/9)

I have never admitted so many patients from waiting rooms, who are waiting for an ER room or hallway stretcher to open up..

Those already in the ER are waiting for a hospital bed to open up upstairs.

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

2/
And patients admitted to the hospital are often waiting for tests/studies prior to being discharged, or are waiting for a bed to open up in rehab or skilled nursing facility.

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

Waiting for test results.

Waiting for studies.

Huh?

Keep going.

3/
There is a general expiation that a portion of patients will spend their entire hospital stay on a stretcher or ER room. Hospitalists, consultants, therapists split time between patients upstairs and the ones in ER purgatory.

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

We’ve heard many stories about people laying on gurneys in the Emergency Room and staying in hallways because there is simply nowhere else for them to go.

4/
The backup is insane. Hospitals have been historically understaffed but covid policies made it far worse.

In an effort prevent a hospitals form being suddenly overrun in 2020 they have ensured they will be chronically overrun for years to come.

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

6/
We are well past needing more doctors and nurses. There is a shortage of maintenance staff, cleaning staff, technicians, security, kitchen staff, case managers etc..

Even a ceiling leak or ventilation issue can shut down an entire floor for much longer than expected.

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

Some people just don’t want to work and their government has told them, ‘HEY, that’s ok. You shouldn’t have to.’ Especially Gen Z.

7/
I am watching these staffing shortages cascade upon each other, and this is to say nothing of equipment, drug, commodities shortages and their relevant supply chain issues.

And no, outpatient & primary care docs can’t somehow step up. They’ve all but been decimated.

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

Yup.

8/
There is no quick fix vis-a-vis AI/automation or immigration.

As millennials age, there are more entry level jobs that need to be filled. The issue is gen z is 1) is relatively small 2) a smaller proportion of them are entering the work force — esp skilled physical labor

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

Relatively small, fewer of them entering the work force … especially when it comes to skilled labor.

Hrm.

9/
From hospitals being empty in 2020 to imploding in 2023 is sickly funny. It feels like an unraveling.

I think this is the new normal, and it’s worldwide as far as I can tell.

I wonder how we will get out of it.

End.

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 4, 2023

We wonder how we will get out of this as well.

Oh, and then people started going after him for this thread because OF COURSE.

Mfs on this thread be like: pic.twitter.com/lB6XgAJDOU

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 5, 2023

It should be noted that almost no patients I have seen have covid, if anything there is more flu A.

The bulk of them are of the usual chronic disease type: stroke, MI, sepsis, fall, trauma, AMS etc..

— Sai Medi (@Saikmedi) January 5, 2023

But hey, thanks for playing, Branch Covidians.