DOH Begs Feds for Funding for COVID Surge, Will It Help Hire Staff?

To combat what the Washington State Department of Health is calling these recent COVID surges that are taxing the state's medical system, now they've gone to the Feds.

Wednesday, it was announced the WSDOH has sent a letter to the Federal Government asking for funding and help.

Dr. Umair Shah, State Secretary of Health, sent the letter, which read in part:

  "...we would like to utilize that assistance in Washington state. I join Gov. Inslee in requesting assistance from the Federal Government-including Department of Defense resources-to provide our state with necessary medical staff and any other resources that can be used to help our hospitals and long-term care facilities in our state."

The DOH also said this:

"DOH has also sent out notice seeking licensed healthcare practitioners and retired medical professionals to consider volunteering to support hospital surge and COVID-19 vaccination efforts."

We know many of our medical providers are 'private' but nothing was said about utilizing any of the Federal assistance to financially help medical providers locate and hire more trained nurses and other workers who can actually treat COVID and other patients during this time.

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It will be interesting to see as we get closer to Oct. 18th, when Inslee's get the shot or get fired deadline arrives.

Ironic the state threatens to terminate healthcare workers over the vaccine, then turns around and begs for help from the Federal government. Depending upon which reports you read, the percentages of healthcare workers (especially nurses) that would quit or retire rather than be forced to take the vaccine vary from 5 to 15%.