Saying they’ve had 18 months to prepare doesn’t mean the healthcare systems are actually in a position to cope, they’ve spent the time firefighting the other issues that are endemic in our underfunded, under resourced and understaffed hospitals.
The government always says they have provided beds, 100 more beds here, 800 more beds there. It's easy to build wings and add equipment, but you can not reach into a bag and pull out doctors and nurses without many years of lead time, we already import a huge amount of doctors due to the shortfall here. Add to that specialist doctors, surgeons and nurses who are actually useful in ICU. The idea is just to make em work longer and more isolated, all the while exposed to a virus that could incapacitate them for years, yeah, great for the health system.