Morning Mail: NSW hospitals face bottlenecks, Taliban appoints government, Australia Reads podcast

Wednesday: Doctors warn NSW emergency departments will face five times as many Covid patients as intensive care wards. Plus: new Taliban government includes minister wanted by FBI

Good morning. Health professionals want a coordinated approach to the looming Covid crisis in New South Wales hospitals to mitigate stress on the already overburdened systems. The Taliban has appointed a new all-male interim government. And we have something extra for your ears with a new podcast in your Morning Mail today.

Doctors are warning that hospital emergency departments in NSW will face almost five times the number of Covid patients than intensive care wards. Medical experts have raised concerns of potential bottlenecks in hospitals straining under the surge of Covid patients, based on what has been seen in outbreaks overseas. The president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Dr John Bonning, said the ICU requirements were the tip of the iceberg" for the expected demand on the hospital system. Bonning said that states needed to ensure that patients were being properly coordinated across the state's hospital network, warning that failure to do so would see unnecessary diversions and inefficiencies. Meanwhile, intensive care doctors will ask the commonwealth to consider a national plan to fly ICU specialists into Sydney from interstate if pressure on the NSW hospital system worsens in coming weeks and have raised concerns over the the idea of abandoning nurse-to-patient ratios floated by the NSW government on Monday.