Covid-19 Health Systems
- Theresa Chen
- Jan 28, 2021
- 3 min read
The article “The Separate and Unequal Health System Highlighted by COVID-19” brings in multiple perspectives from healthcare workers in South L.A.
The article describes the points of view of workers, as well as what a day on the job looks like for some of the workers. Los Angeles is the current epicenter for the pandemic in the US and “One in three people in the county have been infected with COVID-19.” South Los Angeles is also taking a large hit with the pandemic, in more ways than one.
South L.A.
South L.A is largely made up of low-income people of color, which means this pandemic has a huge negative impact on them. The area is densely populated, which allows the virus to spread at alarmingly high rates. As a result, hospitals in this area have many more patients (an estimated triple-quadrulple more) than hospitals in the main L.A. area. There is a shortage of resources, causing them to turn the meditation room and even the gift shop into rooms with beds to accommodate more patients.
“We Need to Fix It”
Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO of MLK Community Hospital, brings up the systemic issues in healthcare that have now been brought to light with the coming of the pandemic. Small hospitals in low-income areas are often facing crises like the one presented in the pandemic, but Batchlor says it’s time for that to stop. "We've created a tiered financing system for health care with commercial at the top and Medicaid and uninsured at the bottom," Batchlor says. "And we need to change that, because that's where many of our Black and brown communities are. And that's why they're being harder hit by something like COVID. We need to fix it."
Hospitals that aren’t private and at the top, like Dr. Batchlor said, are struggling financially with these crises that come so often.
She also brings up how money becomes a big reason why doctors refuse to help low-income communities like the ones in South L.A: if the hospitals are losing money on patients, the physicians see no reason to be there.
“Nowhere Else for Patients to Go”
Dr. Ryan McGarry describes how while the temporary structures are made to take care of hospital overflow, those temporary structures themselves are being overflowed as well.
Despite the overflow, the hospital has found a system to expand what they have to accommodate what McGarry calls "a surge, on a surge, on a surge."
It has become a neverending surge for healthcare workers and hospitals that are over capacity. However, because there are no other places for patients to go, hospitals like MLK Community Hospital go past their limit for them.
Even though hospitals like these have seen crises before, this pandemic brings it to a whole new level with the poorly-built healthcare structure, the overflows upon overflows, and the hard shifts for workers every day. The vaccine provides a small sense of hope, but it is still not confirmed when the public will have access to it.
"We're getting paid adequately to amputate someone's leg," [Batchlor] says. "But we're not getting paid adequately to prevent that leg from being amputated."
Please stay safe and take the necessary precautions. Those protections are both for you, those around you, as well as the workers putting their lives on the line to protect us, like the ones we mentioned above.
**note: some of the descriptions included in the article may not be suitable for all readers. please use discretion if you choose to read the article.
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