Nobody seems to deny that Accident and Emergency departments across the country are in crisis.
Rather, the Government and Labour opposition are busy arguing about who is to blame.
But the plea for help from A&E managers makes it crystal clear how urgent the problem is.
They warn that hospitals are operating at the “absolute margins of clinical safety” and they can “no longer guarantee the provision of safe and high quality medical and nursing care”.
How did it come to this? Problems associated with the 111 non-emergency line may be leading some patients to turn up at A&E departments unnecessarily.
Changes to GP contracts, making it harder to see a GP, may be another factor.
But the real problem is a long-term failure to prepare for increasing demand caused by an aging population – a topic no party has attempted seriously to address.
