Document Type
Article
Publication
The BMJ
Year
2022
Citation Information
Govind Persad, Parag A. Pathak, Tayfun Sönmez, and M. Utku Unver, Fair Access to Scarce Medical Capacity for Non-Covid-19 Patients: A Role for Reserves, (2022), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-articles/1992.
Abstract
As hospitals in the US and elsewhere fill again with patients with covid-19, discussions about how to fairly allocate scarce medical resources have come to the fore once again. One frequently voiced concern is that non-covid-19 patients with urgent health needs are facing indefinitely postponed surgeries, long-distance hospital transfers, or even are unable to access medical treatment. In our view, a reserve or categorised priority system could help. It could be used to fairly distribute scarce medical capacity—such as staffing, physical space, and medical treatments—between covid-19 and non-covid-19 patients, just as it has been used or proposed to allocate covid-19 therapeutics and vaccines.