Domestic Empire hospitals are in a state of disarray as COVID-19 cases are on the rise

Barstow, California. (KABC) – As Govt-19 cases are on the rise across Southern California, hospitals are experiencing pain in a variety of ways. In the domestic empire, as the nurses of one hospital are preparing to go on strike, another hospital is more than double its capacity.

The condition of Barstow Community Hospital is deteriorating, with many nurses suffering from COVID-19 and many recovering from physical and emotional infections.

“It’s bad, we’re completely drowning, we’re collapsing. We need extra help, we did not get it,” the unidentified nurse said.

Barsto Community Hospital 30 bed facility. But interim CEO Suzanne Richards told the Eyewitness News that the hospital was currently treating 54 patients, 47 of whom were Kovit-19. Its ICU treats 16 patients, but has only four regular beds.

The Indigenous District Emergency Medical Agency prioritizes employee requests placed with the California Department of Public Health, and Barstow Community Hospital is currently their priority. They have provided the hospital with at least eight additional ventilators.

Meanwhile, nurses with SEIU 121 RN have called for a 10 – day strike at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in Los Angeles and Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside.

Nurse April Scolari, who worked for five years at Riverside Community Hospital, said “nurses are stretched thin.” “We do not have enough staff to allow us to get out of the ratio; we do not have enough staff to allow us to retire, nor do we have the things we need as nurses because our mental health and fatigue are already taking a toll.”

Nurses cited a lack of proper personal protective equipment as a major reason for the strike, which is scheduled to begin on December 24.

HCA Healthcare, which operates the three hospitals where the strikes are planned, said the strike would add to the demands of the already overburdened health care system in Southern California.

“Given the current COVID-19 uprising and the national nursing shortage, it is unacceptable for the union to force nurses to leave the bedroom and ask them to sacrifice wages from the many shifts lost,” said Antonio Castellon, a spokesman for HCA Healthcare. “It is also surprising that SEIU 121 RN would take a step that would endanger patients, which would require them to make every effort to avoid their own constitution and legal provisions.”