AS AN emergency physician and chief of the emergency department at Tufts Medical Center, I don't need news stories to know that this year's flu season is turning into a bad one; all I have to do is look around my hospital's emergency department and talk with my colleagues to see that many are overloaded with seriously ill flu patients.
Of course, overcrowding in the nation's emergency departments is hardly new. Many US hospitals are forced to juggle far too many patients regularly, resulting in ambulance diversions, patient-packed hallways, and increased wait times for inpatient hospital beds.
But what is alarming is that all these trends, made worse by the current burgeoning flu epidemic, are jeopardizing the health of all patients who need emergency care. Hospitals across the country don't have the necessary resources to treat an influx of very sick flu patients - a frightening scenario that emergency physicians have been warning about for years.
Until our lawmakers, including the nation's presidential candidates, start addressing America's escalating hospital and emergency room crisis with substantive, coordinated, system-wide healthcare solutions, these dangerous trends will continue to put citizens' lives at risk, and leave our communities dangerously unprepared.
Dr. BRIEN A. BARNEWOLT
Newton
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