Long A&E waits just worsen the trauma

SOME things never seem to change. Another day, another depressing tale about the health service.

We have heard in recent weeks how the level of patients languishing on hospital trolleys is higher than ever. Now we are told the numbers of people walking out of A&E departments without being formally discharged are also at a record high.

This raises several issues. Given that more than 13,500 individuals simply abandoned their visits to casualty wards in the space of a two-month period, it strongly suggests that some of them didn’t actually need to be there in the first place.

The statistics also strengthen the case for having pharmacies in public hospitals. At the very least, that would mean people suffering from minor complaints could be pointed in the direction of an on-site chemist. Such a move would contribute greatly to scaling back the interminable queues that we currently see.

But that is only a small part of it. The crux of the issue is that few among us actually want to end up in hospital. It goes without saying there will always be hypochondriacs and people prone to exaggerating their symptoms, but they are very much in a minority.

For most people who end up waiting to be seen by a doctor in A&E, it is the last place on Earth they want to be. It hardly needs spelling out they are already experiencing enough trauma by the time they give their details to the receptionist.

That the trauma should be exacerbated by a long, agonising wait to see a medic is utterly inexcusable.