"Right now, if you are from Montgomery and you need an ICU bed, you are in trouble. If you're from central Alabama, and you need an ICU bed, you may not be able to get one," Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed says. "Our health care system has been maxed out."
Reed says there are zero ICU beds left at Baptist Health in Prattville, where I grew up, just outside Montgomery. There are few, if any, beds left in Montgomery. Out of the major hospitals, Baptist East is short by three beds. Baptist South has none. Jackson Hospital has one.
Reed says the hospitals in Montgomery are being overwhelmed by people from rural areas where the health care systems are inadequate. Many patients in Montgomery aren't actually from Montgomery. (So many rural hospitals have closed in the last decade.)
