I find it strange that all we hear about these days is the shortage of ventilators (okay, PPE too), as if it’s the only bottleneck. The reality is ventilators are useless without intensivists to operate them, and you need anesthesiologists and probably other skilled personnel too.
I learned through a personal connection who was actually on the ground in Hubei (but not Wuhan) caring for serious but non-ICU patients that doctors and nurses in their ward outnumbered patients, and they were at capacity. The staff-to-patient ratio should be higher in the ICU. With an overwhelming number of patients you simply can’t care for them, whether you have the machines or not.
It’s relatively easy to ramp up production of machines. It’s much harder to ramp up production of medical professionals.
I learned through a personal connection who was actually on the ground in Hubei (but not Wuhan) caring for serious but non-ICU patients that doctors and nurses in their ward outnumbered patients, and they were at capacity. The staff-to-patient ratio should be higher in the ICU. With an overwhelming number of patients you simply can’t care for them, whether you have the machines or not.
It’s relatively easy to ramp up production of machines. It’s much harder to ramp up production of medical professionals.