Amid the storm, the desperate & the dying we find our victories.. every person saved, every illness beaten, every wound sutured BY AN A&E DOCTOR

AFTER years of savage funding cuts, conditions at hospitals have deteriorated to levels few people would have imagined possible. The crisis continues despite thousands of ops being cancelled. Here, after a night shift, a doctor exclusively reveals to Health Correspondent Martin Bagot how things really are in the ailing NHS.

only thing I have in common with this young woman and her partner is it will be a discussion none of us will ever forget.

She has lost enough blood to need to go to theatre and has a long night ahead.

I suppress my anger at the desperate overcrowding forcing me to have this conversation inappropriately, and redouble my efforts for her treatment; pain relief, fluids, antibiotic cover, blood transfusion.

She had known, she says, for two days, and thanks me.

That almost does me in, but with a militaristic stiff upper lip I nod, and carry on my work.

Walking back to the Majors area of my department I am pulled desperately to a cubicle by an alarmed nurse.

Three of her colleagues have commenced emergency treatment on a 33-year-old man who has overdosed on heroin. He is whisked to resus and stabilised as, in another cubicle, an elderly lady with horrendous mental health issues that have catapulted her into mindless aggression, scratches the arm of her allocated staff so deeply that she draws blood.

Illness has worsened her agitation and earlier she spat on and threw faeces at her carers. She is deeply unwell.

I have just reviewed a two-year-old child who is suspected of having either a viral illness or meningitis.

The entire absence of beds in the hospital makes my department heave at the seams with patients who have been in A&E nine, 11, 13 hours. There is just no space.

Specialities cannot cope. GPS reach to us in desperation, as community systems disintegrate and disappear. Everyone seems really sick. During times of crisis, accounts of the NHS tend to drift awkwardly into stories of shock.

The scenarios we face – including death and bravery – are always simmering just under the surface and escalate easily.

If you’ve ever been socialising with a group of healthcare workers you’ll know what I mean.

We find it impossible to get through an evening without those half-amazed, half anguished returns to occasions which cut us to our soul.

I have many myself. I’m an emergency medicine doctor and I work