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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients.
Such were the expectations for the Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort that when it chugged into New York Harbor this week, throngs of people, momentarily forgetting the strictures of social distancing, crammed together along Manhattans west side to catch a glimpse.
On Thursday, though, the huge white vessel, which officials had promised would bring succor to a city on the brink, sat mostly empty, infuriating executives at local hospitals. The ships 1,000 beds are largely unused, its 1,200-member crew mostly idle.
Only 20 patients had been transferred to the ship, officials said, even as New York hospitals struggled to find space for the thousands infected with the coronavirus. Another Navy hospital ship, the U.S.N.S. Mercy, docked in Los Angeles, has had a total of 15 patients, officials said.
If Im blunt about it, its a joke, said Michael Dowling, the head of Northwell Health, New Yorks largest hospital system. Everyone can say, Thank you for putting up these wonderful places and opening up these cavernous halls. But were in a crisis here, were in a battlefield.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html
brewens
(13,622 posts)very many patients yet.
rainbow4321
(9,974 posts)While the feds okd Javits to now be for CV19 patients, the military refused the request for the ship. So it stays for non-CV19. Problem being, the hospitals are overwhelmed with CV19, and not so much non-CV19 since there are less traumas, no elective surgeries, etc. Its the CV19 patients that hospitals need help with. But the military wont take them. So, yes, that 1,000 bed ship is sitting empty except for a handful of patients.
C_U_L8R
(45,021 posts)Bet they aren't helping anybody but themselves.
napi21
(45,806 posts)not understand why they specified the ships would NOT take covid19 patients, bit now I see why. They already HAD patients onboard. Those hospitals should understand that.
TheBlackAdder
(28,218 posts).
Since elective surgeries are banned, stay at home prevents most traumatic injuries, that might account for some of the excuse for not filling up the ship at this point. Hopefully, it won't be like when in Puerto Rico and only a few were allowed on board there.
If it's true that there is an issue with decontaminating a ship, that would make the carrier USS Teddy Roosevelt's plight even that much worse. Now you have a carrier that needs to be decontaminated... but how?
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madaboutharry
(40,221 posts)continually find ways to let each other down and make things more difficult. How did we get like this?
tanyev
(42,619 posts)and they're just getting started--there will probably be a continual rise in the number of patients they get. However, it seems like we're getting to a point where any random car accident in NYC also has a high probability of involving someone that would test positive. If we can't get quick accurate testing going, the ship will end up with COVID-19 aboard.