ANYONE going to Accident and Emergency and waiting four hours is going to be cheesed off.

And it is striking that in October, waiting times have been called ‘the worst since 2004’.

Demand for NHS services have rocketed in the 15 years that have followed.

Perhaps the targets are unrealistically high? Locally, we struggle to recruit and retain staff which puts busy units under more pressure, leading more to quit.

Also, if we want something free, as the NHS should be, can we genuinely expect to walk in at any time of the day and be seen immediately?

That would require us to forget that we’re in a queue. We would also need to disregard the fact that people are living longer and need more care.

We would also have to ignore population growth or the fact that many are intolerant of pain in a way that many older generations simply wouldn’t recognise.

MPs standing for parliament are duty bound to take the sitting Government to task over its record and demand better.

But the NHS is frequently used as a political football and the ‘solution’ is a demand for ‘more money,’ rather than sensible solutions to address changing demand.

It would be far better if the parties united on this, because the NHS isn’t perfect and the chances of it ever being so are wholly unreasonable.