Earlier this week Giacomo Grasselli, a senior Italian health official at the epicentre of Lombardy's coronavirus crisis, conducted an interview with the UK's Channel 4 to warn the rest of the world to do all they could to stop the spread of the deadly disease.

Key points: Italy has had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths outside China

Italy has had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths outside China The coronavirus outbreak has put the health system under huge stress

The coronavirus outbreak has put the health system under huge stress Experts say critical equipment must be used on priority patients first

"What happened in Lombardy is just like a bomb that exploded," he told veteran television host Jon Snow.

"Everything happens very quickly, if one had told me that in two weeks we would have created 500 new ICU beds … I would have said 'OK you're crazy'."

Professor Grasselli's job has been to coordinate intensive care units in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, where doctors are having to make difficult choices about which patients can access the health system's finite resources.

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"This is a complex decision that takes into account several factors, not only age of course but also I would say biological age, so comorbidities, other illnesses, past illnesses, current condition, health status, frailty and so on," he said.

"In this situation of incredible mismatch, between the resources we have and the number of patients we should allocate, we have to be more strict in this … triage of the patients."

Equipment to save lives in short supply

Ventilators have proved a life-saving tool for doctors on the coronavirus front line, but most hospitals have a limited supply.

Professor Grasselli warned no hospital would have enough of the machines to deal with a large outbreak of COVID-19.

"What is very, very important for every country — and that's … the real reason why I'm doing this — is everyone must understand [the urgency]," he said.

"If you are not very careful in controlling the spread of the disease, this disease will overwhelm your system, no matter how efficient, good, modern it is.

"So the most important thing, besides creating new ICU beds, besides buying new ventilators … is to avoid a lot of people becoming sick, so you have to teach the population that they have to behave in some way in order to avoid the spread of the disease."

Perth's public hospitals, for example, have 133 ventilators. There are also 120 portable ones and 14 for babies.

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the WA Government has ordered an extra 101 ventilators, and has access to another 50 in storage.

But does the state have enough to avoid doctors having to decide who gets one and who doesn't in the event of a large outbreak?

It's a question the WA Health Minister Roger Cook said he could not answer.

"I understand people are looking for certainty out of the COVID-19 virus outbreak — the one thing I cannot provide you is certainty," he said.

"What I can say is the that the Western Australian Government has done everything we can to prepare for this virus outbreak and make sure we protect the Western Australian community as best we can.

"As you'd appreciate there is a global shortage of all medical and health supplies at the moment.

"Our procurement team is literally working around the clock as they utilise the global time zones to try to access all the equipment we need."

Asked if the Government planned to buy more ventilators, he simply said: "I assume so."

The hardest decision to make

Moral philosopher and acting dean of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle Philip Matthews has been watching Italy's coronavirus crisis closely.

He said it was right and ethical for doctors to restrict access to critical equipment like respirators to the young and healthy.

"The thinking for mechanical respiration won't be much different to the thinking for all scarce resources," he said.

"So if you think of the use of limited organs for instance, [it's] based on things called medical utility," he said.

"[Questions like] 'Does this organ suit that patient or social utility. Is the person too old to receive the organ'?".

Professor Matthews said it would be reasonable to impose an age cut off for access to ventilators in Australia, if supply was rapidly outstripping demand.

Professor Phillip Matthews says it's reasonable that younger people get priority access to critical health equipment. ( ABC News: Eliza Borrello )

"I'm not sure what number you would choose, but I think there ought to be a number like 60," he said.

"I'm 60 … I shouldn't get a ventilator at any stage if someone younger needs it.

"For instance, if I was in competition for a mechanical ventilator with one of my children, it would be absurd to give it to me."

Professor Matthews also said it would be ethical for health and aged care workers to get first access to any vaccine that may be developed for the disease.

WA President of the Australian Medical Association, Andrew Miller, rejected the suggestion people aged over 60 should be restricted from ventilators and did not believe WA would run out of them.

"I don't agree with that at all," he said.

But like Professor Grasselli, he said the health system's finite resources underlined the need to act now to prevent the mass spread of the disease.

"We know that our hospitals can handle tens of pneumonia victims at the same time, but they can't handle hundreds," Dr Miller said.

"By avoiding a huge overload of patients, we can avoid ever having to make that decision, between if you've got two patients who are the same in all other respects but only one ventilator.

"That's the position you never want to put your healthcare staff in."