Alamogordo hospital among 6 in New Mexico with ICU shortage due to Covid

ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico — Six hospitals across New Mexico are now facing "crisis standards of care," including Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo.

Laura Parajon, the Deputy Secretary of Health in New Mexico, said this means people who need immediate Intensive Care Unit care may not get it.

“You get a heart attack, get a stroke, get in a car accident that's very severe, you may not be able to get a bed as quickly as you did if we weren't in crisis standards,” Parajon told ABC affiliate KOAT on Sunday.

Parajon said many hospital beds are being taken up by people who haven't been vaccinated against Covid-19.

"You do have a few people who have been vaccinated and are hospitalized, but most of them are unvaccinated,” Parajon said. "We really don't have very many ICU beds or general medicine beds left. So, all the hospital systems are concerned."

Parajon said the state has now hired 281 new staff members using funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to try and help relieve these hospitals.

“Basically, the federal government is helping us with staffing in many of the hospitals that are having a crisis. So we are trying to avoid crisis standards by trying to add more hospital staff, which is sorely needed right now,” Parajon said.

Parajon said many patients in New Mexico that can't get a hospital bed are being transferred to Texas, Arizona and Colorado.

Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo said as of Sunday that it had received eight crisis support nurses and had 20 Covid-19 patients admitted to the hospital.