Too many users in easy times means what?

Yesterday's news featured the interesting bit that the
waiting times in American emergency rooms have gone up
significantly over the past several years. Even for
critical cases such as strokes and heart attacks. I
can see two meanings in this.

Firstly, profits from emergency rooms will be at an
all-time high, but a shortage of floor nurses there
may develop.

Secondly, when we have a national emergency, such as
a flu pandemic, it's going to amount to Katrina
exponentiated. The news services will be running
remarkable pictures of dead bodies collecting around
emergency room entrances, and after things settle down, with population adjusted downward, the politics
of it will become intense.

This all is so foreseeable, I have to ask if someone
*wants* this sort of event?

Grimly -- Martha Adams [sci.med 2008 Jan 15]


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