Until last week I was only aware of the state of our NHS through the media and anecdote. Now, I have experienced it first hand. 

A fortnight ago I was sent by my GP to A & E in Stoke Mandeville where (I was told) the orthopaedic team were awaiting my arrival. I spent nine and a half hours being in a corridor. 

My first actual orthopaedic doctor was well into the second half of that time. My problem was not life-threatening, but I had a very high temperature and felt unwell. 

I was admitted, put on an antibiotic drip and discharged thirty six hours later. Forty-eight hours after that I was back in A&E for an eight and a half hour wait, with an even higher temperature.

Six hours in, I was left in a side room, where I dozed off and woke at 2am and went in search of help. I was presented with an irate nurse (I think – the uniforms are very confusing now) demanding crossly to know where I had been. 

They had a bed for me and couldn’t find me. The doctor had apparently not told her where they had taken me. 

He appeared, said he had told someone and after a short argument, I was admitted at 2.30am. 

Five days in hospital and I am now fine. I have shortened the saga a little, but the inescapable conclusion is that, despite all claims to the contrary, NHS staff are struggling to keep their collective heads above water because of understaffing, underfunding, long hours and impossible expectations from the funding available. 

‘X per cent more than last year’ does not cut it if it is not enough to do the job. And it isn’t. I rarely saw the same person twice over my time there, with innumerable agency staff plugging the gaps. 

The party that will bite the bullet and add the extra penny or two to our taxes that might restore the jewel our NHS once was, gets my vote.

Another telling moment, when I was on the mend I enquired tentatively about the possibility of a TV to while away the idle hour lying in bed – which I hastily added I was prepared to pay for, the nurse replied ‘Why should you? Prisoners in jail get TVs in their cells but not ill people in hospital! It’s a disgrace’ she added.

She had a point.