Our only chance to get out of the mud is to postpone the illness and wait for the whole public at risk to be vaccinated • Then we can relax and get out of quarantine and return to previous habits • Opinion
Stories coming from England and Los Angeles are scary.
People who go to the hospitals there are not answered, regardless of their problem - Corona or not.
Fortunately, we in Israel are not in this situation at the moment.
Although media headlines about the functioning of our hospitals are confusing to the public, reports from the field do not describe a collapse.
But if the situation continues - we may reach it.
The descriptions of doctors and staff in the media do have to worry us greatly, and one of the purposes of the current closure is to ensure that hospitals do not deteriorate further.
Prime Minister Netanyahu receives the second dose of vaccine against Corona // Photo: GPO
There are a large number of factors that determine the functioning of hospitals.
The first factor that is mentioned a lot, is the number of beds in which patients can be laid down to treat them.
The stories about the "old woman in the hallway" in previous winters depend on the number of beds in the hospital.
Once the number of hospitalized patients exceeds the number of beds, there is no physical space left to lay the patients and leave the patient lying in the hallway, at best if there is a bed.
But there are other important factors that determine the hospital's ability to provide care, and the key is the number of medical staff that can treat patients in relation to the number of beds or patients hospitalized.
In the current wave of morbidity there are some issues affecting the number of staff members who can treat patients.
As the number of verified increases in general, a larger number of medical staff are in isolation.
This isolation lowers doctors and nurses from the workforce, and their friends have to replace them with shifts.
Such a chronic lack of workers causes attrition in the workers who remain in the system.
Nurses and doctors report that they have been working without weekends for some time.
It is not possible to continue like this for a long time and expect the medical staff to carry on their backs the continued functioning of the health system.
At the same time, the medical staffs who have been working since March 2020 are worn out.
Working in the conditions required to prevent infection is difficult and abrasive.
How much longer can they continue like this?
I'm not sure I want a worn or tired nurse or doctor to treat me or any of my family members, if need be.
In addition, hospitals are changing their entire organizational set-up, expanding the departments that care for Corona patients.
This extension is at the expense of treating other patients.
What happens to patients previously treated in these wards?
It is clear to you that other patients are harmed when the system switches to treating mainly Corona patients.
Although the system does not collapse and everyone today will receive treatment, the treatment of other diseases is severely damaged.
Lack of skilled medical staff, quantity and quality needed and number of patients that may increase if nothing is done today, can lead to a situation where the public will not receive good medical care.
Our only chance to get out of the mud right now is to postpone morbidity and wait for the entire public at risk to be vaccinated.
Then we can relax and get out of quarantine and get back to our previous habits.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not far, so a little more patience, and keep going to get vaccinated.
The benefit of the vaccine outweighs the corona damage.
