There’s something Mark McGowan would rather not talk about.
Mr McGowan, the most popular premier in the country, presides over a health system at breaking point and yet there’s not a single case of COVID-19 right now in Western Australia.
Hundreds of non-urgent elective surgeries have been cancelled this month, while ambulance “ramping” — the hours patients in ambulances wait to be admitted into a hospital — has reached a record cumulative high of 6,000 in August.
So West Australians who have been patiently waiting for cataract surgery, for a new hip or knee, or an IVF procedure, are being asked to wait even longer because Perth’s emergency departments are struggling.
Staff shortages (exacerbated by the pandemic), under-funding and unprecedented demand on the system are just some of the reasons being cited.
Mr McGowan has conceded the system’s under pressure but said “hundreds” of aged and disability care patients were occupying hospital beds because the federal government had failed to fund enough beds for them elsewhere.
A similar story is playing out in South Australia, another COVID-free state, where a “major incident alert” was triggered at two key Adelaide hospitals this week, meaning all procedures were cancelled except for urgent and emergency surgery.
As National Cabinet prepares to meet today to work out if the health system can cope when COVID restrictions are eased, one big question looms: what will happen in the states whose public hospitals aren’t even coping now?
