HOSPITALS BRACING
Elective surgeries put on hold as doctors gird for surge in virus patients
As a surge in COVID cases continues through New York, the city has again suspended elective surgery at public hospitals, officials said Thursday.
In anticipation of increased stress on the public health system, Gov. Cuomo recently called on hospital systems to use no more than 85% of their bed capacity, either by adding beds, canceling elective surgeries or both.
“We have suspended elective procedures,” Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said at a press conference held by Mayor de Blasio.
“The only surgeries that we will be doing are those surgeries ... that come in urgently such as a car accident or somebody’s health is directly affected,” he added.
The city’s 11 public hospitals are about 65% full, according to Katz.
“A third more patients than patients we have would easily fit in without opening any extraordinary spaces,” the doctor said.
The policy change, which began Tuesday, was aimed at preventing the kind of crisis the city saw in the spring, when hospitals caught off-guard by the pandemic were overflowing with COVID patients. Elective surgery was canceled in mid-March, then brought back starting in June.
Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Council’s Health Committee, voiced approval of the renewed measure, though he noted it will have “dire implications for both patients and for hospital systems.”
Across the country, California hospitals have nearly run out of intensive-care beds for COVID patients.
The state had a jaw-dropping 52,000 new COVID cases on Wednesday, with more than 16,000 people hospitalized for the dreaded condition, prompting authorities to set up field hospitals.
The Empire State has yet to see such a horrifying uptick in cases — 6,147 people were hospitalized and 1,095 were being treated in intensive-care units as of Wednesday, according to Cuomo.
But the ongoing surge is prompting New York officials to bring back restrictions that had eased over the summer.
Indoor dining at Big Apple restaurants has been banned since Tuesday, and the closure of businesses deemed “nonessential” could come around
Christmas, de Blasio said Thursday.
“The number of cases is too high. The infection level is too high. The number of hospitalizations is too high and unfortunately, it’s just growing,” Hizzoner said. “None of us likes restrictions, but I think we need them sooner rather than later.”
As of Wednesday, the seven-day average rate at which COVID tests were coming back positive came to 6%, up from the 1-2% range over the summer.
During the week ending Tuesday, 132 New York City residents died of the virus, according to the Health Department, bringing the death toll to 24,578 — the worst in the country.
De Blasio and Cuomo repeated pleas for New Yorkers to take steps like avoiding travel and unnecessary gatherings to prevent the surge from getting out of control.
“If we slow the spread, we can avoid any more economic shutdowns. And that is the number-one goal: save lives and avoid economic shutdowns,” Cuomo said in Kingston.
“I believe in New Yorkers,” he added. “We slow the spread. We won’t have to shut down anything. We take the vaccine. And we turn the page in life, and we get ready for 2021.”
The city and state are currently distributing vaccine doses to front-line healthcare workers as well as staff and residents at nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
Cuomo said Wednesday’s snowstorm did not cause any disruption to federal transportation of the vaccine, but said the state is ready to assist if any problems arise.
“There is no significant disruption in places where we need to supplement the transportation with four-wheel-drive vehicles, heavy equipment — we’re doing that,” the governor said.