Syracuse, NY — Upstate University Hospital’s overcrowded emergency room was stressed even more this week by dozens of homeless people seeking shelter during this bitter cold stretch.
On Wednesday night, 28 homeless people spent the night in the ER, some sitting and others standing in the waiting room, a hospital spokesman told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. The temperatures dipped to 15 degrees overnight, only days after Syracuse endured the longest stretch of cold weather in 47 years.
None of the 28 homeless people in the ER Wednesday needed emergency help: They were simply there to find respite from the cold. The hospital staff felt it had a moral obligation to give the people makeshift shelter in an ER that is routinely overfilled with patients who actually need medical care…