The NHS has a lot of catching up to do. There are currently 6 million people in England on waiting lists, and another 1.5 million in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In addition, there are record waits for ambulances and thousands of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to A&E. The discrepancy between demand and supply in the healthcare system is one of the most serious problems the country is facing.

Dr Adrian Boyle of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine says that the NHS is “struggling to perform even its central function - to deliver care safely and efficiently.” People who are seriously ill are facing dangerously long waits. It is taking three times as long as it should for ambulance crews to reach heart attack and stroke victims. And those who have suffered a cardiac arrest are waiting two minutes longer than they should - every minute’s delay reduces the chance of survival by 10%.

This array of problems facing the NHS is putting patients at risk. In July alone, nearly 40,000 patients may have come to harm, warned the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. These problems we are seeing today are not just pandemic-related, they have been years in the making. And unfortunately, there is not a simple solution.

The NHS is drastically understaffed, with one in ten posts currently vacant. This is the highest it has been since records began five years ago. Many countries around the world are facing shortages, but the UK has fewer doctors and nurses per head of population than most Western European nations.

Many argue that the NHS needs more money. But resources are not infinite, and there is clearly a limit to how much the budget can keep going up. Some would argue that instead of focusing on the NHS, it may be more helpful to increase funding given to another service. The BBC reported that one of the major reasons the emergency system is having such difficulties is that hospitals are struggling to discharge patients who are medically fit to leave - but they cannot because there is no support available in the community. More than half of patients ready to leave could not, according to data from the early summer. Much of the needed support is provided by the social care system. But unlike the NHS, social care has not been getting more money over the past decade.

Image from the BBC