There are just not enough doctors to go round

Some of us have experienced or know friends and family that are suffering or have suffered from an illness. In order to see a medical doctor, not only do you need to wait to see your GP but you also need to wait to be transferred to the hospital.

The UK has roughly 2.8 doctors for every 1,000 patients, 28 per cent lower than the EU average of 3.9 doctors. This isn’t the safe service we would all like but there is just not enough new doctors as the population increases.

A local doctor, who asked not to be named, said: ‘It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to have a career in medicine but there’s so much pressure on doctors so they drop out of the NHS. This means that we have to work twice as hard.’

Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth employs over 7,000 staff and covers a population of 675,000 people.

Sophia Xue, aged 12