Why weren't our hospitals prepared for this pandemic?

i do not know where you are, but most countries relied on being able to keep the numbers down, which is why there are lockdowns and rules. 

Governments try to keep numbers low enough so existing health care does not collapse. What they should do is double the funding for health care in places like the UK, and build new hospitals. Hospitals are calling out for more help, but governments care more about the money. 

The Chinese built new hospitals in a couple of weeks, and that was a year ago when it had just started. China controlled it. 

Because the source of the problem doesn't care about anyone but itself. The CCP. The best bet for the world was to have an early heads up to block out the virus and start developing vaccines as soon as possible. But because it already reached half the world by the time China opened their mouth, it was no use. It was being spread before people knew it was being spread, and then it just became an issue of "lockdown, herd immunity, lockdown, herd immunity, lockdown, herd immunity, oh wait the economies flopping, ot oh." Then certain anarchy groups decided to have a massive tantrum across half the world as well because some thug who mugged  a pregnant woman was subjected to police brutality. I don't know about you, but I don't care when bad people kill bad people. It's like a problem that sorts itself out.

Because nothing or no-one can anticipate the unknown. Before the pandemic, no-one knew what Coronavirus was, or if it existed.

Because the medical field is operated as an on-demand service, which means cost savings. No country was "ready" for this pandemic.