COVID ward. It's horrendous. We are currently in the fifth wave of COVID. The hyperlinks can be accessed in the comment section.
A ward of 40 patients under the care of me and my best friend-slash-colleague. Pre-COVID, we looked after about 10-14 cases each.
The average age of our patients is about 80 and frail with multiple health issues and they are all so, so sick – and unvaccinated. Omicron is super infectious and wreaking havoc across the unvaccinated population.
The families can't visit. The patients are stuck in bed because so many of our physiotherapists and occupational therapists are sick that there is nobody getting them out of bed for exercises. So they get weaker and weaker. Our nursing staff are spread thin because, again, so many of them are sick, so they can barely get the medications out and the observations done and the nappies (diapers) changed, let alone actually speak to any of the patients.
Every day, at least two patients die.
The wards are so full that the elderlies awaiting admission are outside in the cold and rain during one of the coldest Februaries ever for up to days. If they aren't sick enough with COVID enough, add on hypothermia and bacterial pneumonia on top. https://hongkongfp.com/2022/02/16/hkfp-lens-hong-kong-struggles-to-contain-covid-outbreak-as-hospitals-run-over-capacity/
People are waiting for up to over a day for an ambulance with several anecdotes of patients being dead or near-dead when paramedics arrive – assuming the call was even picked up in the first place. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3168736/coronavirus-hong-kong-residents-wait-39-hours-ambulance
Our morgues are full of dead bodies to the point where some hospitals have new makeshift fridges outside to keep the bodies cold. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3168601/bodies-pile-hospitals-and-mortuaries-struggle
That is, if the bodies could make it to these fridges in the first place. Some couldn't. Bodies are piling up within AED next to trolleys of live patients. https://hongkongfp.com/2022/03/11/covid-19-hong-kong-hospital-authority-urges-understanding-as-shocking-photo-emerges-of-bodies-stored-on-ward/
Our funeral parlours are fully booked due to how many dead we have, to the point where funerals can't be arranged until at least a month in advance. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3170200/coronavirus-hong-kong-funeral-homes-fully-booked
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The Doctor Will See You Now [Non-Fiction]
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