Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, public hospitals around the world have faced significant challenges.
With a surging number of COVID-19 patients, hospital managers faced massive shortages of isolation beds (those with a ‘negative’ pressure environment protecting against infection). They were also under significant strain to take care of those with the virus, while trying to balance the needs of patients with other diseases such as cancer and leukaemia, along with emergency and elective surgery patients.
As the global pandemic rolls into its third year, hospital managers around the world are looking at how they can optimally allocate the limited amount of hospital beds between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients (such as elective and emergency patients). It is a very critical problem.