CHAPTER 283: CHAPTER 281: THE DILEMMA OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Chen Xin was only worried that the boiler might not meet the heating demands, but in the city, this issue had already become one of the primary problems faced by the shelters, posing severe challenges to the survival of the survivors inside.

The boilers inside the shelters are coal-fired. Compared to oil-fired boilers or other heating methods, these boilers have low operating costs and mature technology. However, they were gradually phased out before the disaster due to environmental concerns, and their thermal efficiency is not as good as new gas boilers.

But due to their mature technology and relatively simple maintenance, coupled with the ease of storage and transportation of coal, coal-fired boilers became the most suitable heating equipment after the disaster.

After all, whether using natural gas or oil, the maintenance costs of new boilers, whether before or after the disaster, are higher than those of coal-fired boilers.

However, now that the boilers in all the shelters have been turned up to maximum power, consuming coal like monsters devouring fuel, they release heat to supply the shelters, yet still fail to meet the heating needs, with the temperature inside each shelter dropping below zero long ago.

It should be noted that after the last city-wide coal shortage, which caused power supply shortages, the city government considered whether heating would be affected in the face of a coal shortage and strengthened the cold-proof and insulation measures inside each shelter.

Theoretically, even without heating, even in minus forty degrees severe cold, the indoor temperature could be kept above zero.

But now, facing extreme cold below minus seventy degrees, even with continuous heating from the boilers, the temperature inside each shelter has dropped below zero and continues to decline with worsening weather.

Although temperatures below zero can temporarily be resisted by the human body by wearing more clothes and staying active, preventing fatal freezing incidents, various ailments and frostbite induced by the cold put colossal pressure on the medical system.

Moreover, in low-temperature environments, the human body needs to consume more food to maintain body temperature, posing a significant challenge to the food reserves in each shelter.

In such situations, the elderly and children are often the first to succumb.

This has resulted in the infirmaries in each shelter being filled with elderly and children seeking medical care, with severe cases needing to be sent to hospitals.

The surge in patients has also strained the medicine supply, and the medical system itself has become overloaded, even before the heating system; further increases in patient numbers could collapse the medical system.

In hospitals, even a psychologist like Hong Rui was pulled to help in the emergency department, working for over sixteen hours continuously.

Yet, patients keep being sent to the hospital, primarily suffering from complications due to hypothermia and frostbite in various parts of the body. Although treating them isn’t difficult, the continuous arrival of patients places immense pressure on hospital staff, leaving them with no time to rest.

Treating frostbite isn’t particularly complex; it just requires removing patients from the cold environment, warming and reheating the frostbitten areas, keeping them dry, and ensuring warmth. Severe cases can be treated with frostbite ointment.

However, this is a painstaking and tedious process, as frostbite cannot be warmed with fire, and can only be reheated with warm water compresses, which take half an hour to an hour.

In this cold environment, warm water quickly cools, requiring someone to continually replace the water.

Moreover, the patients sent to the hospital have severe frostbite cases requiring further treatment, exacerbating the doctors’ workloads.

To prevent all doctors from being overworked with no one available for duty, the hospital rearranges personnel, allowing doctors who have worked over ten hours to rest while pulling in staff from less busy medical departments to maintain the medical system’s operation.

Hong Rui, having worked for over ten hours, was among the first batch of doctors to be relieved.

At this point, Hong Rui looked very haggard, no longer maintaining the refined appearance Chen Xin last saw of her during the apocalypse.

In reality, Hong Rui still looked quite good, just tired with heavy dark circles under her eyes. Other doctors even experienced peeling skin from rubbing frostbitten areas with frostbite.

Doctors rested on chairs in the break room and immediately fell asleep, their last ounce of energy long drained by the grueling work hours.

Seeing her colleagues swaying in their seats asleep, Hong Rui couldn’t help but worry about what would happen if everyone collapsed from exhaustion.

But she had no solution to the issue, and after working for over ten hours, she could only return to her office for a good rest, to regain her strength for her next shift.

As she walked to her office, the hospital corridors were crowded with patients.

Some patients had already received or were receiving treatment, while others were still waiting.

Due to their ailments, a significant portion of them groaned in pain, and combined with the overcrowding and cold, the scene was quite distressful, like a place filled with suffering.

Seeing this situation, Hong Rui grew increasingly concerned, clearly illustrating that the patients couldn’t receive timely medical care, indicating the medical system had surpassed its capacity, worsening the situation further.

This made Hong Rui’s mood even heavier. She made her way through the crowd back to her office, where she lay on the sofa without taking off her shoes, preparing to sleep, to ensure she was well-rested for her next shift.

Actually, if Chen Xin knew what was happening in the city’s shelters, he might sigh and say, "Frostpunk never lied to me."

Even though the game "Frostpunk" heavily pushed personal experiences and the phrase "Is this worth it?" was utter dogshit, completely mocking order compared to faith, many of the in-game settings were very realistic, at least in illustrating that living in cold environments would lead to more patients, causing facility efficiency collapse with patients leaving work, insufficient medical system beds turning mild cases into severe ones, and severely ill patients continuously dying without treatment, exactly mirroring reality.

The current events in the city’s shelters paint such a picture. Even worse, compared to the game, which had several days to reverse the situation by building more medical facilities, facing such realities was far harder to turn around.

Unless the temperature rises again, the situation will only worsen, even becoming more terrifying due to tight coal supplies.