I HAD an interesting experience today, caused by the underresourcing of the NHS which according to the present government, is figment of the media’s imagination.

My wife had an abdominal operation in a major general hospital on Wednesday and was moved to the high dependency unit for a couple of days. I went there this morning at 8am for a meeting with the surgeon.

As I was leaving, the senior nurse asked me if I was free to visit my wife for a few hours later in the day.

She needed one-to-one care as, in her post-operative confusion, she was tending to pull out the catheters and cannulas essential for her survival.

The nurse said that they just hadn’t got the nursing resource for one-to-one supervision. This in a specialist High Dependency Unit.

The nurse apologised for having to ask me, saying that in her view the NHS was being destroyed before our eyes.

I said I would do what I could of course and went back at 2pm.

At 4pm she was transferred to a normal surgical ward. The sister there asked me the same question. So I ‘nursed’ my confused wife for around five hours continuously, unqualified, untrained and, of course, emotionally involved. At 7pm I was frankly exhausted and had to go home.

The staff were wonderful and stretched beyond endurance in both wards. Apart from the inhumanity of it, this is precisely the sort of situation in which mistakes are made.

I’m typing this later in the evening after a very stiff gin and tonic and will not be voting Conservative at the election.

Name and address supplied