Mark McGowan showing leadership and wisdom, page-77

It has nothing to do with Mcgowan wisdom ! The Premier is GUTLESS

Perth hospitals ‘not prepared’ for expected COVID peak six weeks after border reopens
By Heather McNeill and Emma Young January 17, 2022 — 6.45am


THE FACT IS Western Australia Hospitals are in chaos even without 1 case of Hospital Covid admission, & he does not want to be exposed for horrible state of affairs of the W.A. health system that's occurred during the period his leadership.


Perth emergency department doctors say they have no surge capacity to deal with a peak in COVID-19 cases, expected to occur in WA within two months of the border reopening.

While no state government modelling has been shared publicly, WA Chair of the Australasian Emergency Medicine Peter Allely said hospital managers understood the peak could occur six weeks after WA abandons its COVID-free way of life on February 5.

“There are whispers that six weeks in will be the start of a six-week period of our peak cases, so add another week or two on to that as to when our hospital admissions will peak,” Dr Allely said.

“We’re expecting that first [half] of the year to be pretty painful for our staff and we’re predicting a lot of waits for patients.

“We’re ... hoping there aren’t any bad outcomes but fear that it’s almost inevitable.”

WA authorities have so far refused to release any preliminary modelling for the Omicron wave, saying “discussions are going on” when pressed to detail the interim findings.

The modelling used to set the February 5 reopening date was based on the Delta strain.

Perth’s major hospitals already regularly operate at capacity, with ambulance ramping – triggered when there are no beds left in an emergency department – reaching record levels in 2021.

Despite the impending wave of cases, Dr Allely said once COVID-19 hits, hospitals have been advised by the Department of Health to adjust and continue with business as usual while trying to segregate the infectious.

“The older hospitals are struggling and are having to almost make it up as we go along,” he said.

“We will try to reduce COVID-19 transmission in hospitals as our goal to start off with, but being realistic and pragmatic, I think it will get to the point where it’s going to flip and be about protecting the vulnerable.

“As we get overwhelmed by sheer numbers of patients, how we pick out the needle in a haystack that is seriously sick, it gets harder and harder as the numbers get bigger.

“We’re all a bit nervous and scared.”