Los Angeles ambulances will stop taking people with a low chance of survival to hospitals. The corresponding order was issued by the county emergency medical agency, reports the Los Angeles Times.
In particular, we are talking about those patients who have cardiac arrest, no signs of breathing, movement, pulse or blood pressure, despite the attempts of doctors to resuscitate the patient on the spot. County doctors were also asked to conserve oxygen and only supply oxygen to those patients whose blood oxygen saturation has dropped below 90 percent.
The authorities took such a radical step due to an acute shortage of hospital beds, ambulance crews and medical resources. It is reported that due to the unprecedented pressure on the healthcare system, patients can spend up to eight hours in ambulances while waiting for their turn to be hospitalized. At the same time, hospitals are trying to discharge patients as quickly as possible in order to make room for those in need of emergency care. Officials fear that the situation will only worsen in the coming weeks due to the surge in the incidence of COVID-19 after the New Year holidays.
Earlier it was reported that California ran out of places in morgues amid the coronavirus raging in the state. The state's hospitals in intensive care units also have almost no free beds.
