New Mexico hospitals 'very quickly' headed toward rationing COVID-19 care

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 7 December 2020

A study by Oxford University found that New Mexico's approach to the coronavirus pandemic was among the most restrictive and successful in the United States over the course of the year, but now the state is close to entering a "physician's nightmare," The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) told the Post that as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise in New Mexico, she will soon allow hospitals to move to "crisis standards," which means, if necessary, doctors can ration care depending on a patient's chances of survival.

Jason Mitchell, the chief medical officer at Presbyterian Healthcare Services, said doctors "want to save every life we can" and having to choose who gets treatment is a "physician's nightmare." But with New Mexico's health care system under strain and the number of intensive care unit beds continually falling, it may be the only option. "We're headed there very quickly," Mitchell told the Post. "There's no more room at the inn." Read more at The Washington Post.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox