Analysis: Persistent understaffing and ageing estate means drive to slash waiting lists will be very hard to achieve
Every day brings reminders of how permanently under-resourced the NHS is: a ward closing here because there are too few nurses, a queue of ambulances – each with a patient in the back – stuck outside an overstretched A&E there.
On Thursday it was Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Health services are under such pressure in the area that its hospitals and NHS clinical commissioning group spelled out in dramatic terms the impact of so many people needing care. On Monday more than 1,100 patients sought A&E help at the Queen’s medical centre and King’s Mill hospital in Nottingham and Mansfield, often for minor complaints such as coughs and colds or – in one case – seeking the removal of false nails.
