California needs more medical help as ICUs fill. Gavin Newsom asks for volunteers, federal aid

As California’s hospital beds fill up and intensive care unit capacity goes down, Gov. Gavin Newsom identified the state’s most critical issue during a press conference Monday.

“I remind you the issue at hand for us, the primary issue today and likely for the upcoming future ... is staffing. And that’s why we’re being particularly aggressive in terms of the federal asks. Aggressive in terms of our promotion of the Health Corps program,” Newsom said.

Newsom was referring to California Health Corps, formed to recruit retired and newly graduated doctors and medical staff in order to shore up the state’s COVID-19 hotspots.

While California has begun opening “surge” beds at places like Sleep Train Arena to handle overflow from hospitals, it’s become clear that a more deadly problem is facing the state: a shortage of intensive care unit doctors and nurses.

Though 93,000 people signed up after Newsom unveiled the Health Corps program, less than 1% of those who signed up are actually eligible to help. He said he’s looking for recently retired health care workers to return to work.

“That program has been effective, we just need to scale it back up,” Newsom said during Monday’s conference.

The Democratic governor said that the state also is aggressively pursuing the federal government for more staffing.

“We continue to see record-breaking ICU capacity, hospitals that are getting filled up,” Newsom said.

The governor said he is looking to extend existing federal staffing in Imperial County through January, and that he has been in talks with President Donald Trump’s administration to do so.

“We’re just waiting for the final determination on that, but it looks very, very favorable,” he said.

Newsom in addition said that his office is trying to secure 200 Department of Defense personnel, and that they have currently identified 75 people who are being coordinated for deployment to California’s COVID-19 hotspots.

The governor said that he is not requesting that the Department of Defense send a hospital ship like the USNS Mercy back to California.

“However, what we are looking for is personnel. Folks that are those that often are deployed on the (Mercy) would be identified as a top priority for staffing,” Newsom said.

This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 3:51 PM.