El Paso hospitals plan to airlift patients to other Texas cities due to virus surge

EL PASO, Texas – Hospitals in El Paso will soon be airlifting patients to other health-care facilities in Texas in an effort to deal with a record-setting surge of Covid-19 cases.

Local hospitals are working with the Border Regional Advisory Council, or BorderRAC, to coordinate airlifting patients requiring critical care to other health-care facilities in Texas.

The move was announced in statement issued by University Medical Center on Saturday evening.

Whether patients are airlifted will be a voluntary decision made by patients and their families.

Airlifting will be done on a limited basis, if needed, with up to 20 patients being airlifted in a 24-hour period.

Additionally, the state of Texas will be sending three or four fully functional tents with staff and equipment to help with the Covid response.

UMC will be getting at least one of those tents. They will be staged on the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center parking lot, located directly behind UMC’s main campus.

Each tent will be able to accommodate between 17 to 20 patients and will help with emergency department overload.