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Australian Health Review Australian Health Review Society
Journal of the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association
EDITORIAL (Open Access)

It is time to stop blaming the pandemic

Geetha Ranmuthugala A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Rural Medicine, University of New England, NSW 2350, Australia.

* Correspondence to: granmuth@une.edu.au

Australian Health Review 46(3) 383-384 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH22125
Submitted: 18 May 2022  Accepted: 18 May 2022   Published: 26 May 2022

© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).

Abstract

What is known about the topic? Avoidable adverse events are often being attributed to health workforce shortages associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and government funding cuts. What does this paper add? Health workforce shortages were predicted well before the COVID-19 pandemic. What are the implications for practitioners? Senior executives and leaders should unitedly take action to influence change in funding and models of care.


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