NEWS COMMENT: Is it going to get worse before it gets any better?

And that needs to be outlined before we start to digest the news that QA Hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) waiting figures are well below the national average, and way below the national target average.

Last month, over 12,600 people attended the ED – over 400 a day on average. A lot of people indeed.

Of those, 69.4 per cent were seen within four hours – compared to the national average of 84.4 per cent and the national target of 95 per cent.

More than 1,500 additional patients attended ED last month compared to January 2018, an increase of almost 14 per cent year-on-year. And that was without last month bringing any major bad weather outbreaks!

Those statistics are concerning, because there is a very real chance they could get worse before they start to get better.

At present, there are plans to build tens of thousands of new houses in the Portsmouth area in the coming years.

Whenever a major development is announced, the question is always raised – will the infrastructure be improved to cope with all these extra people moving into the area?

And many people have cast big doubts on whether QA – the biggest hospital in the region – could cope with the prospect of dealing with even more people than it currently does.

A quick glance at the statistics mentioned above would suggest not.

It almost goes without saying that the NHS could do with more money to recruit more staff to help improve waiting times. That is the case from Cumbria down to Cornwall.

But there must come a time when the local population QA is serving gets too large for the hospital to function properly.

Is that time fast approaching?