Casualty met with kindness

THIS week has been one of the worst on record for accident and emergency departments. Not a good week to have to call an ambulance, you might think, but that was not my experience on Tuesday morning.

An elderly woman called Mary collapsed in front of me in london’s Marylebone High Street.

We called an ambulance and helped her onto one of the seats outside Providores restaurant.

The kindly owner, Michael, brought out water and hot drinks for everyone, no charge. The ambulance arrived within ten minutes and the paramedic couldn’t have been cheerier or lovelier.

‘You fainted in Waitrose? I’m not surprised, given the prices in there,’ he said, while expertly assessing Mary’s injuries. Then he gently wheeled her into the ambulance, promising a glass of champagne from his cocktail bar inside.

Sometimes things are bad in this country. But sometimes they are pretty great, too.