A New Hampshire Hospital is Pleading with the Public for Help

Hospitals near and far are asking the public for their help.

According to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire, yesterday (Tuesday, November 16) set a record for an all-time high of COVID-positive inpatients with 34. Tack having 8 COVID-positive employees on top of that, and needless to say they're exhausting their abilities both in staff and actual space.

This led to WDH posting a plea for help on their Facebook page to only show up in extreme cases.

"We are continuing to see unprecedented demand for our services, fueled by a variety of pandemic-related factors. Every Med/Surg area was beyond 100% capacity, with our Emergency Department above 130%. On Friday, we briefly declared diversion status for just the second time during the pandemic."

Think about that for a second. WDH was SO overloaded that the hospital actually had to turn patients away. That's something you may see on an episode of Grey's Anatomy, but in reality? It's been relatively unheard of.

Helping WDH are other hospitals across the country is actually pretty simple.

In their plea, Wentworth-Douglass didn't ask the public to go take nursing classes or come out of retirement to help aid the staff in the hospital. It's actually pretty easy to be what they consider a "healthcare hero" and almost takes no effort at all -- it's more or less common sense.

They're asking that you only visit the ER if it's more or less a dire situation. Legitimately dire. Otherwise, they're suggestion their urgent and primary care locations for help with less serious needs. They also suggest to continue following best practices for the prevention of COVID (masking, hand washing, social distancing, avoiding crowds) as much as possible. And above all else, quite possibly their biggest ask of all, they're pleading with you to be patient with their staff during these extraordinary times.