Beyond the Waiting Room

Exploring healthcare access, urgent care and the future of community
healthcare in Australia.

About the platform

Healthcare is about more than what
happens inside a hospital.

Beyond the Waiting Room is an independent platform dedicated to exploring healthcare access in Australia, with a particular focus on the space between primary care and emergency departments.
As demand on the healthcare system continues to grow, many Australians face a familiar question.

Where do I go when I need urgent care, but it's not an emergency?

At the same time, emergency departments, ambulance services, and healthcare professionals are managing increasing pressure while trying to deliver safe, timely care.
This platform exists to explore those challenges through thoughtful discussion, research, and commentary. Rather than offering simple answers, Beyond the Waiting Room aims to encourage informed conversations about how healthcare can become more accessible, more connected, and more responsive to the needs of communities.

What we examine

The articles published here explore topics including:
  • Urgent care
  • Ambulance ramping
  • Community health infrastructure
  • Patient & frontline experiences
  • Emergency department demand
  • Access to primary healthcare
  • Healthcare policy & system improvement

At its core

Meaningful change begins with
understanding the problem.

Whether you're a member of the community, a healthcare professional, a student, or
someone interested in the future of Australia's health system — you're welcome here.

About the founder

Elizabeth Akol

Founder, Beyond the Waiting Room

Beyond the Waiting Room was founded by Elizabeth Akol to encourage thoughtful discussion about healthcare access, urgent care, and the future of community healthcare in Australia.

Through research, commentary and community conversation, the platform explores the challenges facing patients, clinicians and communities while examining ideas that may contribute to a more connected, accessible and responsive healthcare system.

Elizabeth believes meaningful change begins with listening, learning and asking better questions about how healthcare can continue to evolve.

Elizabeth Akol is an emerging voice in healthcare, policy, and systems thinking, with a particular interest in how healthcare can better respond to the people and communities it serves.

Her interest in healthcare extends beyond clinical care. She is particularly interested in the systems, policies, infrastructure, and decisions that shape what happens before a patient reaches a hospital and what happens after they leave.

Beyond the Waiting Room grew from that curiosity: a desire to look beyond individual healthcare encounters and examine the bigger picture.

Elizabeth believes some of the most important questions in healthcare are not always the easiest ones to ask:

  • Why are we doing things this way?
  • Who does the system work for?
  • Who is being left behind?
  • And what could we do differently?

Through Beyond the Waiting Room, Elizabeth hopes to create space for those questions and for the people who experience Australia’s healthcare system from very different perspectives.

Better healthcare begins with better conversations.

About the founder

Elizabeth Akol

Founder, Beyond the Waiting Room

Beyond the Waiting Room was founded by Elizabeth Akol to encourage thoughtful discussion about healthcare access, urgent care, and the future of community healthcare in Australia.

Through research, commentary and community conversation, the platform explores the challenges facing patients, clinicians and communities while examining ideas that may contribute to a more connected, accessible and responsive healthcare system.

Elizabeth believes meaningful change begins with listening, learning and asking better questions about how healthcare can continue to evolve.

Elizabeth Akol is an emerging voice in healthcare, policy, and systems thinking, with a particular interest in how healthcare can better respond to the people and communities it serves.

Her interest in healthcare extends beyond clinical care. She is particularly interested in the systems, policies, infrastructure, and decisions that shape what happens before a patient reaches a hospital and what happens after they leave.

Beyond the Waiting Room grew from that curiosity: a desire to look beyond individual healthcare encounters and examine the bigger picture.

Elizabeth believes some of the most important questions in healthcare are not always the easiest ones to ask:

  • Why are we doing things this way?
  • Who does the system work for?
  • Who is being left behind?
  • And what could we do differently?

Through Beyond the Waiting Room, Elizabeth hopes to create space for those questions and for the people who experience Australia’s healthcare system from very different perspectives.

Better healthcare begins with better conversations.

  • Why are we doing things this way?
  • Who does the system work for?
  • Who is being left behind?
  • And what could we do differently?

Through Beyond the Waiting Room, Elizabeth hopes to create space for those questions and for the people who experience Australia’s healthcare system from very different perspectives.

Better healthcare begins with better conversations.