05/03/2022    

PODIATRISTS AND THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

COVID-19 Aid for Uninsured Ends While Need Expands: TN Podiatrist

 

The infusion of aid is ending at a time when hospitalizations from Covid are receding; but as safety-net providers, we are facing tremendous unmet needs from patients who have delayed care for chronic conditions and other health problems even more than usual during the pandemic. Nashville General has seen an average of just one Covid patient a week recently. But its doctors and nurses say that a wide range of health problems that worsened during the pandemic are now overwhelming the hospital.

 

Dr. Andrew Pierre

 

As he prepared to clip an uninsured patient’s worsening fungal toenails, Andrew Pierre, DPM, the hospital’s podiatrist, said the range of unchecked problems had expanded in his practice: bunions, flat feet that need reconstructive surgery, and a surge in diabetic wounds.

 

Source: Noah Weiland, The New York Times [5/1/22]