Doctors' appointments Sheffield: why does it take so long to see a GP in Sheffield?

Yet for those whose health depends upon receiving the prompt, expert care and compassion of a trusted GP, the lack of capacity in the healthcare system leading to the unavailability of practitioners is no laughing matter.

The stark nature of the problem is writ-large in Sheffield, where a call has been sounded for a health emergency to be declared in the Steel City.

And whilst the wellbeing of patients in the NHS system must maintain absolute priority, it is not just those receiving diagnoses and treatment who are being failed by an ailing system; a shortage of funding in Sheffield is leading to GPs facing unemployment – a situation that will inevitably lead to them leaving the city in search of a livelihood elsewhere.

Such a predicament is ridiculous in a city where figures show that last year, a quarter of all appointments successfully booked with a GP took place more than two weeks after patients deemed the attention of a doctor necessary.

It is a situation that is likely going to be exacerbated by the gobal IT outage caused by a faulty update issued by anti-virus company CrowdStrike affecting booking systems used by a number of surgeries around the country.

Many column inches have been filled in this newspaper and others about the challenge facing health service policy makers and those charged with running trusts around the country, but time is running out before it fails completely.