Unfortunately,2022 looks like another election where neither major party is offering a 21st-century vision for a better health system.
In 2021,an estimated half a million Australians either deferred or missed out on seeing a specialist because they couldn’t afford it.
The government is right to make getting children back to school a top priority. But keeping schools open won’t be easy.
The federal government has dramatically expanded home care for older Australians,but poor-quality care will remain a hidden problem if the workforce remains undervalued,underqualified and insecure.
The end of lockdowns means the burden of responding to the pandemic shifts from falling on the whole population through lockdowns,to falling on the health system and its staff.
The Victorian government should weigh up all possible options to get students back to school safely before the end of the year – even if that means delaying plans to ease other restrictions.
Hospitals are facing burgeoning demands from COVID cases,exacerbated by the reality that they were stretched before the current outbreak.
The Victorian government could take a more nuanced approach to lockdown restrictions,but it is too early to throw in the towel completely.
When we try to imagine what “living with COVID” will look like,we need to realise that there are two very different “living with COVID” worlds.
The national cabinet should not be pulling a trigger too early and consign Australia to even more lockdowns and a higher number of COVID-19 deaths.
There are four important ways the Morrison government can tackle COVID-19 vaccination reluctance – one of them is through a mass promotional campaign.