“How will anesthesia be rationed during the coronavirus?”

Your hospital will determine why her of nit elective surgery is reduced.

We are performing only emergency or urgent procedures. We reserve icu and ventilators for very ill covid patients.

Anesthesia will not be rationed, so much as elective surgical cases will be limited if there is a possibility that the patient may require hospitalization after surgery. This is due to the fact that many hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients. As far as I know there are no major changes in the use of anesthesia.

From Christopher Creighton

During the beginning of the pandemic, elective surgical cases were eliminated. Elective surgical cases have resumed across the country. No rationing of anesthesia care exists currently.

Actually, with elective anesthesia cases being postponed in some areas, there would not have to be any rationing. Many providers have been reassigned to other duties or even laid off while the elective cases are postponed. Some anesthetic drugs are also used in the intensive care unit, so in those cases there may be a shortage of anesthesia drugs. One problem is that anesthetic drugs are not a very profitable sector, so there are not many manufacturers, even for drugs out of patent. A hurricane or disruption of the supply chain can cause a lot of problems for the whole industry.