October’s IW NHS Trust board meeting revealed around 400 Islanders awaiting surgery have been offered the opportunity to be treated on the mainland but only a few patients have chosen to take up the offer.

Read more: Islanders turning down private ops on mainland

If Covid-19 has shown us anything, then it is the vulnerability of our NHS when everything is cut back to the bone.

While it will always be the case that some medical conditions will need to be treated in specialist hospitals on the mainland, it is also the case that we need to invest in, and expand upon, our hospitals capabilities here on the IW.

Not least, so it can comfortably cope with every day demand, rather than having to relying more and more on third parties, or become degrading to the point where it is taken over by Portsmouth University Hospital Trust.

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