Health in a bad way

SIR – In late 2020 I broke my hip while stewarding at an art gallery. My husband took me to our local hospital, where they requested an ambulance to the district hospital. It was six hours before they found an available bed.

During an operation the following afternoon the sedation was too little, as I could hear voices and the sawing of bone in the theatre. On the ward, there were too few nurses and care was intermittent.

When I returned home I was told there would be no six-week follow-up. The hip gave me persistent trouble, and eventually we sought private advice. That consultant operated again, telling me the bone had been out of place.

The pressure on the NHS is unacceptable. Understaffing has been years in the making.

Susan Harrison

Mousehole, Cornwall

SIR – I telephoned my surgery for a same-day “face-to-face” appointment, to be greeted by a message telling me my call was very important to them and that “an agent” would be with me “shortly”. Fifty-five minutes went by, with this message every 10 seconds, which meant that I heard it 330 times.

It was worth it. I got my appointment.

Joseph E Kelly

Aldwick, West Sussex