Leeds, Barnsley and Harrogate NHS hospital figures suggest This is Going to Hurt indeed

Alarming figures showing that multiple hospitals in Yorkshire were completely full last week come amid record numbers of number of people enduring long waits in A&E nationally and as queues for tests and procedures such as surgery keep growing.

Some 6.1 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of December – the highest number since records began.

Dealing with the such demands is an unenviable job for ministers but a situation where backlogs and bursting hospital wards pile pressure on exhausted health professionals is not good enough.

If we are to go about life with the daily privileges afforded to us in pre-Covid times – which the Prime Minister will grant by lifting all restrictions as he intends – we cannot enjoy those freedoms while the NHS continues to creak under the strain of waiting lists.

Add to this the news that Health Minister Maria Caulfield has admitted that backlogs for dental treatment are also “only going to grow” – as a Yorkshire MP suggests the dire state of the current system requires the creation of a new National Dental Service – and it amounts to a deeply worrying indication of what lies ahead.

The TV adaptation of ex-junior doctor Adam Kay’s memoirs This is Going to Hurt could hardly be timed better, even if they were penned long before a global health catastrophe.

There will be little comic relief, however, for patients anxiously waiting for the treatment they need to enjoy a post-pandemic way of life that the rest of us in the UK are set to begin.

Ministers have much to contend with, but protecting the nation’s health is non-negotiable.

Leeds, Barnsley and Harrogate NHS hospital figures suggest This is Going to Hurt indeed - The Yorkshire Post says