Disaster ride

(Back blup a day late). An eventful day. It started well. The sun was shining and a great afternoon for a bike ride and off I went for 50k. Close to home, I came down a narrow lane and was suddenly confronted by a vicious, narrow, hard rubber speed bump, ideal to control car speed, but dangerous to cyclists. The result was I was separated from my bike and hit the road.....hard. A passing motorist kindly helped me straighten myself and my bike out. But as well as road abrasions and bruised ribs, I knew that my shoulder was not right. A quick self examination revealed that fortunately, my collarbone was not broken....but definitely dislocated.  I managed to uncomfortably ride the remaining couple of miles home and Sally drove me to A&E.
Seven interesting hours later around midnight, I was seen by the Minor Injuries Team who confirmed my self diagnosis, cleaned up my wounds and put me in an arm sling with an appointment for physio follow up. Job (eventually) done. My collage blip, courtesy of Sally, is a “before”, while waiting in A&E and an “after” on getting home at 1am wearing my new badge of injury.
Why do I say an interesting seven hours? Because it gave me a first hand observation of the atrocious care that our NHS gives to patients seeking emergency medical care in hospital. Looking around the waiting room for those hours I could see the obvious distress of some patients and the apparent lack of attention that it received. When I was working, I always took pride in our NHS and endeavoured to remain caring, courteous and professional even when under pressure. The impression I had was that the system is so pressurised and broken that some clinical staff seem to have lost that professionalism and care. I am deeply saddened by this.