"No shortage here", says the austerity government.

How politicians make health problems go away.

A patient needs a hip replacement. Badly.

Putting them on a looong waiting list looks really bad politically…they might be ‘waiting’ months, or years, or forever.

And what if many of the specialists have looong waiting lists? Politicians would have to admit the system is badly underfunded, underresourced, understaffed.

But then the current government's f…