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San Luis Obispo County hospital heads are sounding the alarm that the COVID-19 pandemic has been severely underestimated on the central coast.
Some local ICUs have no beds available this week, according to the director of intensive care at the French Hospital Medical Center, Dr Mark Soll. He, along with other hospital leaders, wants the community to know that the dramatic increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care admissions is straining our hospitals.
“Things have really intensified in hospitals and we are starting to have to look for beds to accommodate patients,” said Dr Soll.
He explained that his hospital’s 11 intensive care beds are full, with six COVID-19 patients and five more. Staffing is also very small.
“You see all these people complaining that we’re clustered in Southern California with their 85% occupancy rate. Well, we’re just as bad, if not worse, than most of Southern California. “Soll said.
He says our region is extremely vulnerable, adding that the central coast already has half the number of hospital beds as most countries, it’s already a busy time of year partly because of the flu and other respiratory illnesses, and we are in a pandemic.
He adds that the mandate of the governor of the home is necessary for our region.
“A lot of people have objected to this as being useless on the central coast because we’re in such good shape. Well, they don’t know what they’re talking about. We’re out of shape,” Soll told me. .
He says at the French hospital they are making plans for an auxiliary intensive care unit for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. The problem with this, he says, however, is that there aren’t enough staff to look after the patients.
“You can only ask people to work 150 percent for so long and right now everything is fine and everyone is willing and able to do it, but at some point things get broken,” said Soll.
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