Member

I said on day one in this job that I would never gloss over problems in the health service and I would not pretend that everything is going well when it is not. The experience of patients this winter is unacceptable. I visited one A&E department over Christmas where I was told on the way in that I was lucky as I had come on a quiet day. Yet, as I walked through the hospital, I saw patients on trolleys lining the corridors where they were being treated, without the dignity or safety they should expect as a minimum. I saw frail elderly people on beds in the emergency department, many with dementia, crying out in pain and confusion because, ultimately, they were in the wrong place for their care needs. That was supposedly a good day.