I thought I might just add to this on a personal note (because y’all know how much I love my personal rants), you know how the media always tells you how “wonderful” and “brilliant” Australia’s hospital system and gun control is..?

Gun control: 4 shootings in the past two weeks. Mostly Melbourne (shithole that it is), mostly gang-related. Including a nine year old girl, who was just playing in her driveway, with her mum, and who may or may not be related to one of these “gang members”…

Hospitals: Generally run on a state level, and fucking appalling if you live outside the central city/“good” part of one of the big three (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane).

Allegedly, my city has one of the best public hospitals in the country. Allegedly. My experience would beg to differ.

I can’t even get an MRI, because they lack the technicians needed to get their “new machine” working properly. It’s been months. The new ward, where the machine sits, was built by Chinese contract labour, rather than locals, and it is so bad (not surprising, given conditions were so bad that they walked off the job) that, now that it is finished, it simply does not work properly. It leaks. The electricity in it doesn’t work as it is supposed to. It regularly floods, because the water isn’t connected properly, and it sits next to the main hydrant for that whole side of the hospital. It’s not properly lit. And worst of all, there is somehow lead in the pipes, coming from the old part of the hospital, because they did not adequately compensate and/or plan, when they built the new one…

Ambulances are ramped (complicated, but just… Look it up). The ED is overflowing, and crumbling. The whole place is chronically understaffed. And this is the “best” hospital in the state, supposedly.

The wait to see a dental specialist is ~6 months, because they are so understaffed.

For a different specialist (non-dental), sometimes he just “forgets” to book q follow-up appointment, or doesn’t turn up, or changes it at the last minute. And he is supposedly the best in the state, at what he does, so what does that tell you!

I’m at least $1000 in debt to the public system, partly because they overcharged me for treatment which I did not recieve, and now I have to fight that charge, through the system, which takes weeks, at a minimum…

If you want to see a psych, here (I don’t, but I hear about this), or a counselor, the wait is 18 months (!!), for new patients, in at least two states…

18 months!!! I think that may be the most appalling of all, actually… Because you really think that people in distress can wait 18 months for that “service”??

Wow, “socialized” healthcare. Gee, that sounds like it’s working “perfectly well”, doesn’t it..?? 🤦🏻‍♂️😑

Send in the clowns. Oh wait, don’t bother - they’re here.