Old ways are best when NHS in crisis

I ONCE broke and dislocated my elbow. My father drove me to A&E, where I had a fourhour wait and a further twohour wait before it was operated on.

Any further visits to clinics often took most of the day. 2018? No, it was 1955 and I was 13. Nothing has changed, really, except the quotas now imposed by governments and penalty payments for failure.

We elderly are now blamed for bed-blocking and that didn’t happen then; there were cottage hospitals ready to receive those not quite recovered enough to go home or those not quite ill enough for hospital.

They were staffed by SEN nurses who were trained in house and supervised by one or two senior nurses. GPs would call in on their rounds and the little hospitals were well equipped and homely.

Unfortunately they also sat on profitable real estate and cash-strapped councils sold them off for development.

Another problem is that we are advised to visit our chemist for health advice. This is after many pharmacies have been closed and the remaining are now too understaffed for the sudden surge in demand.

I found, to my horror, when, being in dutiful mood, I decided to stock up for winter ills, the only thing I could take for flu or heavy colds was glycerine, honey and lemon. Everything else worked against the heart medication I take.

I am now researching Granny’s remedies for such illnesses. So far, balls of butter rolled in sugar, Vicks in a bowl of hot water and a towel over the head. All good, well-tried remedies. Anybody got any more? MRS J CAUFIELD, Stannington