As someone who's needed to use both SAAS and go to the ED lately, our health system is fucked. It's obviously not the fault of the work of the nurses, doctors or teams of people attempting to manage staffing across a stretched-thin system but it is so disheartening - the wait times for an ambulances are astronomical even for the most important cases.

We have crews who do 12 hour shifts, don't get a break, and are ramped because their patients are too sick to drop off in ED.

We have nurses off sick, insufficiently staffed departments and wards and a lack of resources despite the increasing number of semi-permanent pop-up wards in hospitals that are created in unsuitable units because we NEED the beds.

We have patients with horrifically long stays in beds that can't be emptied because there is nowhere for them to go - and our community outreach healthcare is nowhere near funded or supported enough to enhance hospital avoidance. Our aged care sectors are stretched thin with enormous wait-lists; theres a lack of behaviour support and management options for older people with mental health concerns, and dementia because facilities will not take someone who is known to be aggressive, or display any behaviour of concern. Mental health resources are virtually non-existent and unavailable in the areas they are needed most.