The Victorian well being system was left critically injured by the pandemic and its restoration is predicted to take years.
Cluttered emergency departments, unacceptably lengthy elective surgical procedure wait lists and overstretched GPs are nonetheless inflicting main complications.
On this particular three-part sequence, 9News goes inside our main hospitals for a wide-ranging well being examine, guided by the medical doctors and nurses proper in the midst of it.
It takes numerous ability and endurance to work in emergency, and the calls for at The Royal Melbourne Hospital in Parkville have by no means been better.
The push of the unwell, trauma victims, drug overdoses and psychological well being sufferers usually comes at 11am and preparations are in full swing from early within the morning.
The emergency division was down one registrar on the day 9News filmed.
Most of the medical doctors and nurses there have not taken a breath because the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
It is like a sport of excessive velocity Tetris, making an attempt to suit too many sufferers into too few beds.
Dr Mya Cubitt, who's the Emergency Doctor in Cost on the hospital, informed 9News: "I feel if we have been trustworthy, all of us are a bit burnt out, a bit damaged.
"There are days the place I am a bit frightened to return to work that I do not fairly have sufficient in me. However when you get right here, it is the identical because it's at all times been. It is the affected person in entrance of you, the care that they want and making an attempt to ship it."
Emergency division doctor Dr Jonathan Papson mentioned there have been issues in every single place within the system and that the answer for as we speak's difficulty would not repair tomorrow's headache.
Simply whereas 9News was interviewing him, six extra sufferers arrived on the emergency division.
Dr Papson mentioned sufferers have been "completely" having to queue longer for remedy than they did earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It is hours and hours," he mentioned. "The hospital system continues to be fairly confused.
"Some days are actually, actually dangerous and issues are uncontrolled. Different days are higher."
The caseload can be unpredictable; from damaged legs sustained in bike crashes to critical trauma prompted from falls at work.
At The Alfred, in Melbourne, there is a related set of challenges.
Extra individuals are coming into emergency and sometimes they're sicker than pre-pandemic, requiring longer stays in hospital.
Affiliate nurse supervisor Shirley Yi mentioned accommodating sufferers was "like a puzzle".
"Generally we're full and we'll have to maneuver some sufferers out. It's a problem," she mentioned.
There's trepidation about what lies forward.
"All people's drained and we're involved that we're not at winter but," Royal Melbourne Hospital nurse unit supervisor Susan Harding mentioned.
"In some unspecified time in the future, there must be an finish to it. In some unspecified time in the future, there isn't a flexibility left."
However the bonds between these within the system have by no means been stronger.
Emergency division flooring coordinator Maggie Bock mentioned seeing her workforce rally like they'd for the previous three years was "simply essentially the most unbelievable factor".
"I work with essentially the most wonderful particular group of people that I can depend on each single day," she mentioned.
"That basically retains me coming again, the workforce that we work with."
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