A gargantuan effort to increase the number of hospital beds available for coronavirus needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast.
That’s the upshot of a conference call between the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
NBC Connecticut reached out to the Connecticut department of health on this, but did not get a quick answer. We also contacted the American Hospital Association for more details.
The information is tucked in a 2019 report from the state Office of Health Strategy.
It said there were 8,540 available hospital beds in Connecticut in 2018, and it has not varied very much.
Gov. Ned Lamont says “We are woefully short as a region in terms of being able to take care of folks, especially if the surge comes the way we expect it.”
Lamont’s hospital bed comments came during a tri-state governor’s telephone conference.
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Afterward, fellow Gov. Andrew Cuomo from New York said to get the feds involved.
“Deploy the army corps of engineers to come work with states to build temporary medical facilities,” Cuomo said.
Time is of the essence, said Yale epidemic expert Albert Ko. He explained neither Connecticut nor the nation can wait any longer.
“We need to be in a place where we can receive our patients, take care of them where ICU beds are free and care for people with severe complications of pneumonia due to coronavirus.”
The report is broken down hospital by hospital. Read the full report below.
