(CNN) – Dr. Nitesh Baryani, Third Generation Radiation Oncologist in Tampa, FloridaHe was recently forced to make a decision, saying he or his family had not been involved in treating patients for 60 years.
The nearest hospital worked to relocate a cancer patient to a location with adequate treatment options. Baryani said he would continue to accept this type of patient, but for the first time he was unable to do so due to the number of Covit-19 patients.
“We don’t have a bed. There’s no place in the hospital to treat a patient,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo in an interview Wednesday.
The latest wave of Covit-19, due to the often-spreading delta variation, pushes emergency rooms into the range. Some states are overcrowded with an ICU patient, as well as staff shortages due to irritability and illness.
“The delta variation is sweeping hospitals in ways we can’t imagine and the difficulty it causes in the health system is unimaginable,” said Baryani, medical director at Tampa Cancer and Proton Hospital.
Florida, home to about 6.5% of the U.S. population, has about 17% of COVID-19 hospitals in the country, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Wednesday. At least 100,317 people in the country have been hospitalized for Govt-19, of whom 17,164 are in Florida.
Baryani, who shared his experiences at an event in the Washington Post, said the cancer patient was later admitted to another facility nearby. However, hospitals in the region are beginning to delay procedures due to lack of beds, showing that this increase does not only affect Govt-19 patients; It is difficult to find a decline in vital care for those in urgent need.
“A lot of patients come to see us. The other day, there was a 12-hour wait for our ER. Almost every hospital in the city is on bypass, which means there is no place for them to be relocated.” Patients with complex care cannot access it. This kind of stress is something we have never seen before. “
Baryani urged Americans to get vaccinated, saying it was “the best tool we have” to deal with the epidemic.
“We see in hospitals that more than 90 per cent of people entering the ICU are not vaccinated. There is no doubt that vaccination is the best option we have. It is the cheapest option we have. It is very effective and there is really no reason for people to avoid vaccination,” he said.
“We don’t even have to inject a single patient because of the vaccine problem. The people we invade, the people we live with, the people who die are not vaccinated.”
CNN’s Lauren Mascarenha contributed to the report.