Its hard-working staff are second to none, so why is the NHS in crisis?

CARE provided by NHS staff is excellent, but the system is riddled with waste. My aunt has yo-yoed in and out of hospital, spending 33 days out of 39 on a ward. She was admitted and discharged four times, including being readmitted after just 24 hours. On each occasion she had to go through the same process in A&E, taking six hours each time. Every time she was discharged she was given a month’s supply of medication and, when she

was readmitted, this had to be returned unused to the pharmacist to be destroyed. With such an approach, more funding for the NHS is simply a waste of time.

R. WILKS, Solihull, W. Mids. WHEN convalescent homes were closed because it was decided they were outdated, nurses like me predicted the hospitals would be choked with people unable to return home because they needed extra care for a full recovery. One sister told me at the time: ‘These patients are lucky with the care they

receive. But who will look after us?’ How right she was.

E. FITZGERALD, Chichester, W. Sussex. PHOTOGRAPHS of apparently overcrowded A&Es do not give justice to an overburdened system that performs miracles against a tide of over-expectation from the public. Thanks to hard work, innovation and compassion, the NHS resolves medical issues for thousands of patients every day. Instead of criticism, more effort should be spent on finding solutions to relieve the strains within the system and encourage a more responsible use by the public. D. RUSSELL, Marlow, Bucks. AFTER a 999 call, the ambulance paramedics had to wait nearly five hours to book me in to Northwick Park Hospital A&E in North-West London. I spent 14 hours on a trolley before a bed was found. But this is not about me: there were many patients lining the corridors. The medical staff were run off their feet, but were cheerful and kind. Is it any wonder this hospital is overstretched when the other local A&Es have been closed?

JOHN EVANS, Harrow, Middlesex. I CAN’T praise highly enough the ambulancemen who took my mother to hospital after she fell and cut the back of her head, resulting in her bleeding heavily. After waiting for 90 minutes in A&E, my sister asked a doctor for help, but he told us our mother was ‘a healthy 94-year-old and had to wait her turn’. Her hair was matted with dry blood, but he told us he was too busy to deal with this so he gave us gloves and swabs to do it ourselves. After this, our mother’s head wound was finally treated.

GILLIAN POWELL, London E9. PATIENTS on trollies in A&E are the lucky ones. I spent New Year’s Eve with breathing problems at my local hospital on a plastic chair, shoulder to shoulder with seven other patients. I would have loved a trolley to lie down on.

Mrs ANGELA HODGES, Folkestone, Kent.