HOUSTON - During Commissioners Court on Tuesday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo will propose $30 million in funding for hundreds of additional nurses to support hospitals amid the surge in COVID-19.
"I'm grateful for the support from the state in providing nurses to our region. Some have arrived already, it's incredibly helpful, but there's still a gap, and it's urgent," Judge Lina Hidalgo said before Commissioners Court on Tuesday.
Judge Hidalgo said local hospitals don't have enough nurses to staff open beds.
"Over the past several weeks, we've been in touch with officials from the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council. It's the group SETRAC, for short, that is responsible for coordinating the needs and the resources of our health providers, our health agencies during emergencies in particular. We've been in touch with them to determine what the needs are – what between what the state has provided us and what's still necessary for our hospitals. We've assessed the maximum amount, we think we may need, based on the maximum length of time these nurses may stay. And that's how we've arrived, the experts have arrived, at this $30 million figure," Judge Hidalgo said.
Judge Hidalgo says all $30 million may not be needed and "we will work to keep the total expenditures as low as possible".
If approved, Judge Hidalgo says nurses could be in Harris County within 72 hours. The nurses would help staff all of the local hospitals and not just the public hospitals.