Originally Posted by
WingNut60
I'm not sure that the WA Govt ever specifically said that the border was being closed to protect the mining industry.
Though that is at least partially true and taken as a given.
But anyway, what do you see as being a quick fix for the current situation with hospital waiting times?
Not being in WA and not being in favour of under-investing in health, however, supply of trained medical staff would be the limiting factor, as opposed to (say) any shortage of mullah or will. Those staff take a long time (longer than his COVID episode) to make/acquire. If someone in WA Govt recognised the health system as a vulnerability then the main reasonable/viable course of action would be to keep the threats out, rather than attempt to build up response capacity when the personnel are not available.
The health sector is very well versed in restricting supply of trained professionals in order to preserve salaries and hierarchy. The widespread use of telehealth has been by necessity and it took the emergence of COVID to break down the institutional barriers. The long term question is around whether the health sector is prepared to improve its scalability and flexibility post-COVID. Otherwise the blame for capacity shortfalls will continue to lie equally between govt and the sector itself IMHO.