A&E

It was rather ironic that as I was waiting in the overcrowded A&E, Boris was boasting on the TV monitor that he was going to build 40 hospitals and recruit 50,000 nurses.

He should have been a fly on the wall to watch the appalling conditions the young doctor was working under. This lovely man took us into a tiny curtained area with two chairs. He had to stand and write down the whole of my medical history. This is where I have been a patient since April but there was no way he could access my records.

On the other side of the curtain an irate nurse shouted at an elderly deaf man who couldn't understand a word of what she was saying.

The doctor left us for about ten minutes while he went off to look for an examining cubicle. Eventually he found a free one. Examination over, he went off to get advice from consultant and surgical team. He returned and took me to xray. The results showed everything normal. Our consultation with him finished by him saying the pain I was having was probably muscular.

Throughout our time with this young doctor, he was polite and smiling, and very sympathetic and professional. He was working under intolerable conditions and had probably been there for hours. Will Boris's promises make his job any easier? Only time will tell. And wont make any difference to the numbers of people waiting on beds and trolleys in the corridors.