Idled cruise ships into temporary hospital ships?

[Milt Baker]

A great think-outside-the-box friend just sent me this:

 

With all the cruise ships shut down and sitting idle for the next 3-6 months, it seems that converting some of these ships to handle insufficient hospital capacity could be a win/win for the industry and provide a safe/quarantined space to handle the possible surge of patients. 

 

In America, they could certainly respond to NY, MD, VA, SC, FL, CT, MA, LA, CA, WA, and more by providing the additional beds, kitchens and isolation.  The government could pay 100% to clean and make the necessary modifications to the ships, then after the epidemic to convert them back to their former condition. 

 

This feels like it would be great promotion for the cruise ship industry to be viewed as being part of the solution instead of part of the problem?

 

What a brilliant idea!  Kinda like guns into plowshares.  The idea takes a liability, a sleeping cruise ship idled by the pandemic, and turns it into a great asset.  And even provides cash flow for the cruise lines whose cash flow has suddenly flattened. 

 

So the question is: how to float this idea to the cruise lines and to Washington for consideration and action?

 

Or am I all wet?  What am I missing?

 

Milt Baker

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Milt Baker

[capriccio]

MSC offered one of their ships to Genoa Italy last week to serve as a hospital ship.  See https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/passenger-ship-gears-host-covid-19-patients-italy-200312181804197.html

[CruiserBruce]

In California, the state is already filling suddenly available hotels to get people off the street, and make sure the corona virus isn't spreading unchecked in the homeless population. Same benefits to the businesses.

 

The cruise ship idea isn't bad...but there isn't an unlimited supply of doctors, nurses, support staff, and medical equipment and supplies. Cranking up just one cruise ship as such would require a thousand or more people...that just aren't sitting idle right now. 

[njhorseman]

21 minutes ago, Milt Baker said:

A great think-outside-the-box friend just sent me this:

 

With all the cruise ships shut down and sitting idle for the next 3-6 months, it seems that converting some of these ships to handle insufficient hospital capacity could be a win/win for the industry and provide a safe/quarantined space to handle the possible surge of patients. 

 

In America, they could certainly respond to NY, MD, VA, SC, FL, CT, MA, LA, CA, WA, and more by providing the additional beds, kitchens and isolation.  The government could pay 100% to clean and make the necessary modifications to the ships, then after the epidemic to convert them back to their former condition. 

 

This feels like it would be great promotion for the cruise ship industry to be viewed as being part of the solution instead of part of the problem?

 

What a brilliant idea!  Kinda like guns into plowshares.  The idea takes a liability, a sleeping cruise ship idled by the pandemic, and turns it into a great asset.  And even provides cash flow for the cruise lines whose cash flow has suddenly flattened. 

 

So the question is: how to float this idea to the cruise lines and to Washington for consideration and action?

 

Or am I all wet?  What am I missing?

 

Milt Baker

 

Cruise ships aren't equipped to be hospital ships. Where would all the equipment needed come from? Quick answer...nowhere because it's needed for use in actual hospitals.

 

The US Navy is already dispatching one of its hospital ships to NY and another is being sent to the West Coast. 

These are fully staffed and equipped hospitals with 1000 beds each. They'll be used for trauma patients, which will open up hospital bed capacity on land for Covid-19 patients.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/18/trump-navy-ship-coronavirus-new-york-harbor-135732

Let's leave the job to the professionals please.

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by njhorseman

[CruiserBruce]

4 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Cruise ships aren't equipped to be hospital ships. Where would all the equipment needed come from? Quick answer...nowhere because it's needed for use in actual hospitals.

 

The US Navy is already dispatching one of its hospital ships to NY and another is being sent to the West Coast. 

These are fully staffed and equipped hospitals. 

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/18/trump-navy-ship-coronavirus-new-york-harbor-135732

Let's leave the job to the professionals please.

 

Actually...that is part of the problem. They aren't kept "fully staffed"...they require activating reserves (which, generally, are practicing their profession in the civilian world) and other active duty personnel,  which have regular medical job assignments in the military. Otherwise the ships sit in "storage".

 

(Married to a former Navy nurse)

[Shmoo here]

39 minutes ago, Milt Baker said:

With all the cruise ships shut down and sitting idle for the next 3-6 months, it seems that converting some of these ships to handle insufficient hospital capacity

It's not really the capacity that's the issue.  You can certainly set up "hospital" beds pretty much anywhere.  What's at issue is stuff like ventilators and other equipment necessary for treating extremely ill people.  There's a finite number of those.  You can't just make new ones for temporary hospital setups.

[njhorseman]

18 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Actually...that is part of the problem. They aren't kept "fully staffed"...they require activating reserves (which, generally, are practicing their profession in the civilian world) and other active duty personnel,  which have regular medical job assignments in the military. Otherwise the ships sit in "storage".

 

(Married to a former Navy nurse)

But they will be staffed when they are put into service.  That may cause some disruption in the availability of civilian medical personnel called to active duty, but the point is that you're not taking a cruise ship and trying to make it into a hospital out of the thin air. These are equipped hospitals and they will be staffed by qualified professionals.

Edited March 18, 2020 by njhorseman

[navybankerteacher]

33 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Cruise ships aren't equipped to be hospital ships. Where would all the equipment needed come from? Quick answer...nowhere because it's needed for use in actual hospitals.

 

The US Navy is already dispatching one of its hospital ships to NY and another is being sent to the West Coast. 

These are fully staffed and equipped hospitals with 1000 beds each. They'll be used for trauma patients, which will open up hospital bed capacity on land for Covid-19 patients.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/18/trump-navy-ship-coronavirus-new-york-harbor-135732

Let's leave the job to the professionals please.

 

Just visualize trying to maneuver a gurney from elevator area to cabin passageway. Easier to commandeer/convert a hotel.  Still staff and equipment is the real problem.

[Philob]

As mentioned staffing would be a major problem.  San Francisco is just put out word it is currently hiring 200 nurses, on the spot, at a job fair next week.  They're to work at city owned medical facilities asap.   

 

 

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

55 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Just visualize trying to maneuver a gurney from elevator area to cabin passageway. Easier to commandeer/convert a hotel.  Still staff and equipment is the real problem.

Actually, I am sure a true hospital bed will not fit in a standard cabin door...the bed is too wide. It have to be disassembled, and then reassembled inside. The hallway and elevators would be fine in most cases, but barely. So, taking a patient for any tests will require additional transport devices, which increase the sterilizing requirements, etc.

 

Far from insurmountable issues, but would require even more staff to make work.

[CruiserBruce]

16 minutes ago, Philob said:

As mentioned staffing would be a major problem.  San Francisco is just put out word it is currently hiring 200 nurses, on the spot, at a job fair next week.  They're to work at city owned medical facilities asap.   

 

 

 

 

True. The major issue here is a shortage of nurses that far, far predates corona. But it highlights the problem achieving some of the other ideas discussed in this thread.

[mammajamma2013]

2 hours ago, Milt Baker said:

A great think-outside-the-box friend just sent me this:

 

With all the cruise ships shut down and sitting idle for the next 3-6 months,

 

Milt Baker

 

Can you provide a link for this information? I'm probaly behind in reading information about all that's going on but I thought cruise lines were shutting down for 30 days, with Princess shutting down for 60 days. Thanks so much!

[Capt_BJ]

After a couple of hurricanes the idea of using cruise ships as temporary housing was floated .. at least one even went to New Orleans after Katrina. The great idea failed to work as desired and in the end only a small number of temporary relief workers were housed.

 

it SOUNDS good but the logistics of getting the ship working well at a dockside location for a 'long' time get problematic ....

[njhorseman]

48 minutes ago, mammajamma2013 said:

Can you provide a link for this information? I'm probaly behind in reading information about all that's going on but I thought cruise lines were shutting down for 30 days, with Princess shutting down for 60 days. Thanks so much!

He can't...but it's not out of the realm of possibility, I'd say even fairly likely, that cruising could be shut down longer than has already been announced. It really depends on the  spread of the virus over the next month, and most health professionals agree that the worst lies ahead of us.

[Essiesmom]

The companies that rent scooters on cruise ships also rent hospital beds.  So they know how to gt them into the cabins.  But you also have a lot of electronics that need to be plugged in (including the bed) and there simply are not enough plugs.  And all the plugs are usually across the room from the head of the bed.  A safety nightmare for anyone not in the bed.  EM  (retired nurse)

[clo]

4 hours ago, njhorseman said:

Let's leave the job to the professionals please.

 

And imagine what it would take to make a cruise cabin usable as a hospital room?

[Milt Baker]

2 hours ago, mammajamma2013 said:

Can you provide a link for this information? I'm probaly behind in reading information about all that's going on but I thought cruise lines were shutting down for 30 days, with Princess shutting down for 60 days. Thanks so much!

Mammajama: You're correct that cruise lines have announced that they're shutting down for 30 days or 60 days, but they have not said when they will resume their schedules or where their ships will be going.  The handwriting seems to be on the wall: with the stock market crashing, the pandemic with coronvirus/COVED-19 wreaking havoc around the world, and ports being closed to cruise ships, do you really think that passengers will be merrily boarding ships and heading out on cruises 30 days from now?  Nope, sorry, I cannot provide a link, but I can tell you that the smart money doesn't seem to be on cruise lines (or the travel business) going back to business as usual in 30 or 60 days. 

[CruiserBruce]

23 minutes ago, clo said:

And imagine what it would take to make a cruise cabin usable as a hospital room?

Believe me, extremely few hospital rooms look like that.

[clo]

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

Believe me, extremely few hospital rooms look like that.

Oh, I know. But I'm pointing out the uncarpeted floors, bare walls, lots of 'outlets.'

Edited March 18, 2020 by clo

[Markanddonna]

Perhaps they might serve as a place to quarantine U.S. Citizens coming home from foreign countries. People who aren't ill. That is a group that concerns me now. work

 

I know a couple with two children in Italy who are all US citizens. If people like them come home now, they might carry it directly to their elderly parents and community. They wouldn't need anything but food and daily health checks. It seems foolish to allow people who have been living in Europe to bring the virus here.

 

Tvhere's no perfect answer. Everyone in charge is trying so hard. Check worldometers.info to see up-to-date stats. Western Europe had a MUCH higher rate per million per capitathan the US.  Tiny San Marino is far worse than Italy and Lichtenstein isn't much better. Israel won't allow anyone on the beaches and people can leave their home for exercise for only ten minutes!

 

[Aquahound]

Converting cruise ships into hospital ships might sound like a great idea to some but in truth, it's just not feasible.  

 

OP, sorry, but your friend is all wet.  

[navybankerteacher]

4 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

The companies that rent scooters on cruise ships also rent hospital beds.  So they know how to gt them into the cabins.  ...

...

Just because a company which rents scooters for use on cruise ships might also rent hospital beds does not mean that hospital beds must fit down cruise ship corridors or through stateroom doors.  There is zero logical relationship.

[mammajamma2013]

4 hours ago, Milt Baker said:

Mammajama: You're correct that cruise lines have announced that they're shutting down for 30 days or 60 days, but they have not said when they will resume their schedules or where their ships will be going.  The handwriting seems to be on the wall: with the stock market crashing, the pandemic with coronvirus/COVED-19 wreaking havoc around the world, and ports being closed to cruise ships, do you really think that passengers will be merrily boarding ships and heading out on cruises 30 days from now?  Nope, sorry, I cannot provide a link, but I can tell you that the smart money doesn't seem to be on cruise lines (or the travel business) going back to business as usual in 30 or 60 days. 

Thanks, I just hadn't heard/read any kind of update regarding further shut-downs. You're right, it makes sense it won't be going back to business as usual any time soon.

[Hlitner]

Cruise ships as hospital ships?  How well did that work for the Diamond Princess?  

 

Hank

[Honolulu Blue]

Carnival Corporation is officially floating this idea:  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnival-corporation-extends-offer-to-governments-and-health-authorities-to-consider-cruise-ships-as-temporary-hospitals-301026996.html