THE BAD news is that overcrowding in our accident and emergency departments has reached the worst level for seven years.

The worse news is that the political bun-fight over this is set to become a weekly event with the more regular publication of the statistics.

Perhaps the most graphic illustration of the way the root cause of the problem is escalating comes from Dr Martin McKechnie of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine: "Even three years ago, seeing a 90-year-old or a 100-year-old was a once a week occurrence. Now it is every day."

No politician can legislate simply to magic away the problem. The phenomenon of Scots living longer, as we have said before, is to be celebrated, but it has consequences that were difficult to cope with for policy makers ten or fifteen years ago. Now, in the age of austerity, we are running faster but being outstripped.

During January the proportion of patients dealt with in our A&Es within the four-hour target time dropped to 87% across the country, with Greater Glasgow and Clyde significantly lower still. Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley were also below the Scottish average. In one week 200 patients had to spend more than 12 hours on a trolley.

Health Secretary Shona Robison, who recently announced emergency support for the Royal Alexandra in Paisley has now extended that to Glasgow's Western Infirmary and given the health board a further £5m to relieve pressures.

She also pointed to staffing levels reaching an all-time high, claiming an increase of 10,000 under her Government and the full-time equivalent of 2500 more last year along. Ms Robison also cited figures showing a downturn in delayed discharges in January which she hopes will feed through to better A&E waiting times.

We'll know soon enough whether this is having an effect for the figures are now being published weekly after pressure from Opposition parties.

Of the signs of a fall in bed-blocking, she said: "Our focus now must switch to continuing that progress, while making sure no-one has to wait longer than is absolutely necessary.

"In order to do this we are bringing together both health and social care, to ensure the system works effectively as possible. And we have committed £100 million over the next three years to help reduce the numbers of people waiting to be discharged from hospital."

Again, all well and good, but can the speed of reform match the speed of demographic change? It's not just the Royal College of Emergency Medicine which is sceptical. Theresa Fyffe of the Royal College of Nursing welcomed the fact the nursing numbers were up but vacancy rates are worsening.

Her overview chimed precisely with the longstanding view of this newspaper: "It appears that problems are being considered in isolation via individual task forces and working groups. If patient care is to improve we need a joined-up, co-ordinated approach, and we need it now."

How to achieve this when, as Fiscal Affairs Scotland highlighted yesterday, local authority funding is at breaking point, shows the degree to which problems are piling up.