Overwhelmed FL County: Please Use 911 “Sparingly”

Florida Today reports:

All three hospital systems in the county are over capacity, and are continuing to deal with a strong surge in patients, Brevard County Emergency Management Director John Scott said. The surge in COVID-19 cases also prompted Brevard County Fire Rescue Chief Mark Schollmeyer to urge residents to stop calling 9-1-1 for non-emergency calls, so as to leave hospital emergency room staff and facilities — and BCFR crews — to handle the urgent medical emergencies.

“Our BCFR ambulances are seeing an increase in hospital times due to not being able to turn patients over to hospital staff,” Schollmeyer said, referring to ERs filled with patients suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. “We continue to ask that people use 9-1-1 sparingly for non-emergent issues and to save the ambulances and ER trips for those who urgently need those services.”

Read the full article.

Hospitals feeling the squeeze as COVID-19 cases dominate admissions https://t.co/TUOyG0SzQ4

— Florida Today (@Florida_Today) August 10, 2021