Aussie PM warned of hospital system collapse

The Prime Minister has been issued a terrifying warning about the future ability of the nation’s hospital system to save the lives of Covid-19 victims.

In a letter addressed directly to Scott Morrison, Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said Australia’s hospital system would not be able to cope with the easing of public health restrictions — even with increased vaccination rates.

“If we throw open the doors to Covid we risk seeing our public hospitals collapse,” Dr Khorshid said.

“Even pre-Covid, emergency departments were full, ambulances ramped, and waiting times for elective surgery too long.

“We have the lowest bed-topatient ratio in decades, our emergency and elective performance continues to decline, and our doctors and nurses continue to barely cope with their workloads and the constraints of the system.”

Dr Khorshid called on the Prime Minister to force national Cabinet to “urgently commit” additional funding to Australia’s hospitals to help them prepare for the peak number of serious cases of Covid-19 following the relaxing of restrictions.

But the PM played down Dr Khorshid’s funding concerns when asked about the letter during question

time, stating the federal government had already allocated an additional AU$6 billion ($6.24b) in resources to help states and territories cope with the health demands of Covid-19.

But Dr Khorshid was adamant the infrastructure and funding was simply not enough for Australia’s hospital system to cope with the highspeed

spread of the Delta variant.

NSW is set to experience their highest peak in ICU admissions in late October due to Delta’s increasing rampage across Greater Sydney.

“Without a commitment to a new reform agreement — one that provides the increased beds, the extra staff, addresses avoidable admissions and re-admissions and supports performance improvement — we will lock our hospitals and those who need them into a permanent cycle of crisis,” Dr Khorshid said.

He warned Morrison that without immediate additional healthcare funding, Australians would fall victim to an increasing number of preventable deaths within an overworked hospital system.

“Too often we hear tragic stories of late-stage cancer diagnosis, emergency treatment delayed and sadly, avoidable deaths,” he said. “This is only going to get worse with Covid and we cannot afford to wait any longer.”

Dr Khorshid urged the government to wait until the vaccination rate was above 80 per cent before fully easing restrictions.

“The AMA believes a vaccination rate higher than 80 per cent of the adult population is likely to be required to avoid repeated lockdowns given the existing constraints on hospital capacity and staffing,” he said.

The federal government has not yet indicated what the vaccination target will be for restrictions to be fully eased.

Morrison said the government’s funding and management of Covid-19 would continue to evolve with the the health crisis.