Bubblegum and Band-aids

It's worse than you may know

Well, it's post-Thanksgiving Saturday. Raining, not many deer moving but Concerned American took a small (170lb) Mississippi buck. One big boy lurked just out of view of my daughter and son-in-law. The 250 and 270lb monsters my “son” and I have been spotting on the game cameras were smarter than we were…stupid cold wet muddy hoomans out in the rain. Nonetheless, good eating and sausage for the freezer. Another day, I suppose.

Tomorrow's Sunday, or pre-Monday, and the Surgical grind begins anew. The next four to five weeks will be among the busiest of the year, as they always are. Pre-Mondays of late are fraught with a sense of dread of what fresh hell awaits me the next morning….will it finally be the day I must send patients home for lack of sufficient staffing or adequate drugs or supplies for surgery? Other area hospitals have had to do so…..

Most Americans never confront this issue, at least they never did before the Covidiocy.

Combining the effects of the Plandemic with those of the backfiring Russian sanctions and the silent undeclared war upon us by the CCP has led us to precarious times. Consider that at the onset of the winter respiratory illness season, conveniently now labeled a “Tridemic” by Those Who Know Such Things, commonly used drugs like acetaminophen, amoxicillin and amoxicillin-clavulanate are in short supply. We have long had periodic shortages and national backorder statuses on commonly used drugs like morphine, cefazolin and, of late, lidocaine. Previously, this was due to concentration of manufacturing capacities in one or two facilities, most often due to cost or margin issues. The FDA makes a surprise inspection or there's a fire and BOOM! weshutyadown. Now, the layering on of offshoring of critical manufacturing capacity by our rapacious pharmaceutical industry and our corrupt (nee treasonous?) federal offishuls with raw materials shortages, transportation bottlenecks and other nefarious supply-chain issues and VIOLA! Honey, I ain't got your drugs. This isn't limited to drugs, though. Surgical and medical supplies are equally constrained, often in ways that are very narrowly focused. It can, and does, affect care.

Medical personnel are also feeling the squeeze. Between the popularity of short-term assignments from the often perverse incentivization by Uncle Sugar’s COVID funding of hospitals, leading to decimation of once-stable labor pools and the literal exhaustion and demoralization of remaining staff, filling out a hospital or clinic employee roster is increasingly difficult to accomplish. The labor pool is correspondingly increasingly shallow. My clinic advertised a Certified Medical Assistant position and had nine applicants, seven of which unashamedly listed their most recent positions as being held at McDonald's. You want fries with that? BIGGIE?

This is only going to get worse, folks. Upcoming graduates of training programs are navigating curricula that are, more and more, pushing Woke agendas steeped more in DEI (diversity, equity,inclusion) than clinical competency. Is it more important that your care provider be competent or fulfills some particular identity criteria?

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/university-florida-college-medicine-destructive-woke-agenda-students-report

This isn't happening just in Gatorland…it's everywhere, even in the Deep South. To be fair, my cynicism has been blunted by a recent PA student and two solid young surgical residents from local programs, though I remain concerned that they are anomalies.

I suppose I should just Enjoy the Decline, as it seems inevitable. A friend and colleague from Memphis posits that insurance concerns and government are colluding to break the back of the system, as the predation of hospital systems upon one another is frenetically apace in seemingly vain attempts to survive through growth. I fully expect my system to be absorbed soon, and am preparing for that eventuality.

I asked CA today over coffee after the morning’s hunt about why we were chosen to be able to recognize what's afoot, and burdened, in a manner of speaking, with the sense of responsibility to speak up about it

He reminded me that, as old guys, it's not just our responsibility but our privilege to do so, as Arthur Sido at Dissident Thoughts so posted

Tonight's selection for the fireside while Alabama crushes the War Eagle is an Irish single malt

I can't, no won't, stay quiet, and I'm sure the Duke would concur. Might watch that later if the Sportsball gets boring.

Stay frosty, friends, and Don't Get Sick.