It's much easier to introduce restrictions than train medical staff in a week.

Also capacity has been increasing year on year for the past 100 years in the EU, USA and the UK . Faster than population actually.

Also there is cyclical and situational capacity management. For e.g.: flu waves, new year and now covid waves.

I only know about those regions

A synopsis of a short story where the protagonist writes -1 every day.

Can’t find the story, nor the comment. My memory of this is also very fuzzy at this point so it might be a completely different idea.