General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: THREAD: Harrowing account of effect of UNVACCINATED on hospital ICU capabilities [View all]Farmer-Rick
(10,135 posts)Our medical system, set up to make money for owners of hospitals, clinics and practices, is not flexible and was not designed to respond to mass illness or a pandemic. It's how our just-in-time economy works or doesn't work.
Why should these profit centers plan for a once in a lifetime emergency? Hospital beds have been slowly decreasing both in ICUs and in general since we have allowed them to be profit centers, or wealth extraction systems, for owners and the rich. Why pay for people and equipment for stand by just in case we have a pandemic?
Why waste money for extra hospital facilities on the off chance a mass illness will hit? Our for profit system couldn't even develop a written back up plan. Recall procedures for labor, identifying facilities that could easily be converted, emergency equipment supply systems, all this could have been planned and tested.
But no, people are dying because our medical system has to make a profit.
And it is not just the US that has failed so miserably in planning for an emergency.