It took a Freedom of Information request but @Covid19DataUK acquired 2017-2019 averages for England hospitalizations.
2020 had 18% fewer hospitalizations than prior years.
All around the world, using hospital data without context of prior years is just a fear generating lie. pic.twitter.com/DJDpqhIQuw
— Yinon Weiss (@yinonw) December 31, 2020
I believe the data in the US would be the same.
An empty hospital bed, like an empty semi-trailer or empty cab, makes no money.
So hospitals don’t normally sit empty, the size the hospital is intended to match the needs of the community with a little wiggle room in case of emergencies.
You are not going to build a 1,000-bed hospital and have 700 beds just sit chronically empty, that’s throwing money away.
See that big dip in March-April? That’s when we were told that hospitals were needed for the COVID surge and not to go unless it’s an emergency.
This explains why this year we saw HUGE layoffs in hospitals, which has not recovered.
Because the media says “hospitals are near capacity” without saying “hospitals are always near capacity” means that everyone who doesn’t have COVID or an emergency doesn’t go to the hospital.
My mom needs joint surgery and it’s been postponed since the spring. She’s in terrible pain but can’t get surgery scheduled because of COVID.
The malfeasance here by the media, medical workers, and hospital administrations that haven’t explained the reality is a crime against humanity.
People are dying of cancer, heart disease, organ failure, and other progressive conditions believing that they can’t get treatment because there is no room in hospitals, but the reality is our hospitals are at or below normal operating capacity because being 85% full is how they break even and 90% full is profit.
It is even more likely in the US that hospitals run as close to capacity as possible. The UK’s NHS has no financial incentive to fill beds. (Well a minor incentive, as the directors need to report to Parliament on what they are doing with their budget)
On the other hand, any for profit hospital is likely overbooking, because they know people will cancel, get discharged early, etc… My Dad did a few days hospital time a few years ago. They moved him about three times before he got a stable room. At one point, he was in the maternity ward. Why? Because the floor where the specialist that were going to treat him was full.
Airlines overbook, hotels overbook, any business which gets paid based on utilization of an expiring resource overbooks. If they do not, they lose money.
I know a guy who was a consultant for the hospital industry. Hospitals break even at 80-85% capacity. They are designed to operate at 90% capacity. That gives them some wiggle room for emergencies (natural disasters, a multi-car pileup, etc.). They can push to 150% capacity (two beds per room for a standard room) without much effort.
…until it comes time to …er, “sweat” out additional nurses to staff those beds.
THEN the kim-chi is revealed!
“People are dying of … progressive conditions…”
Truer words ne’er were posted.
It’s the same in Germany, as far as we can tell.
No excess mortality, no excess Intensive Care, not even excess artificial ventilation compared to last year.
We had a spike of deaths in August in no way related to the then >10 deaths a day with Covid – officially it was because of the “hot weather” but as the August was pretty mild this year a few medical sources believe it was because of diseases that didn’t get treated in time.
And none of our lock-downs had any effect on hospitalization or deaths with Covid.
So OF COURSE they are going to extend the Lock Down.
I have to correct myself, in August we had <10 deaths from Covid a day. Less than 10. More or less for the whole summer. sometimes not even a day with a Covid death. We spiked a 500 or so at the end of November and got a Lock-Down because there were to many deaths – now we're down to half of them and still Locked-down 😀
Bethesda Hospital in Saint Paul Minnesota was converted to a COVID Only Treatment Hospital in the Spring. Now during the dreaded second wave of the Chinese Coronavirus, rather than being used to treat COVID Patients, it is closed, and will now be a homeless shelter.
They also closed the emergency room for another Saint Paul hospital last week. They have not closed the hospital, but that is probably on the way.
In May, the number given for revenue losses by Minnesota Hospitals was over 30 million dollars a day, or almost a BILLION DOLLARS A MONTH.
There are definite winners and losers from the Chinese Plague. The average person has definitely lost, and lost a lot.
THAT is only one reason why those idiots on Tik Tock (or whatever) infuriate me. Not only are folks who are, indeed, professional, tarred with those idiots’ brush, but also the low census drives needed hospital capacity over a cliff.
And then, when the manure hits the fan, there is *NO* excess capacity to be had. And the personnel you need, should those beds reopen, have moved on with their lives. Likely, in another time zone altogether.
It sucks to be stupid. It sucks more when you suffer because other idiots are idiots.
One would think that anyone with an ounce of logic or common sense would say “why are we closing hospitals and laying off medical staff if this is the worst pandemic ever and our hospitals are overloaded with patients dying in the hallways?”
The media has done everything it can to eliminate that question.
If/when everything does return to normal, we are going to be like Canada or the UK where routine surgeries are going to have a 6 month wait because capacity constraints.