Hospital Beds Becoming Critical Issue

The surge in COVID-19 cases has created a critical shortage of available hospital beds in some areas of the state.

Georgia is divided into regions as shown on the map. Upson, Pike, Lamar and Spalding are in region F along with 8 other counties.

At 3:40 pm on Tuesday GEMA reported that region F had a total of 230 critical care beds, 214 were in use, leaving 16 available for the 12 county area.

Region E, the Athens region and H, the Tifton region each reported 1 bed available and according to a story published in the AJC, both are now full and sending patients elsewhere.

Statewide the number of critical care beds in use has reached 88% while the total number of general inpatient beds in use is at 80%.

The 12% of critical care beds still available represents a total of 369 for a population of 10.5 million residents. The majority of ICU beds available are in the metro Atlanta area.

Southwest Georgia will lose 25 beds on October 22nd, when the Randolph County Hospital Authority will close Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert due to the financial impact of the pandemic.

The chart below shows the total number of beds and the number available in each region.