We had a minor medical emergency this morning, in that my mother’s wound dressing started leaking blood. It didn’t look serious, but equally it didn’t look like something I should try to fix myself as up until now fresh dressings had always been applied by nurses.

So I phoned the carers, because that was the emergency number I had. They said I should phone the GP surgery, but that because it was Saturday I’d probably get a message to phone 111.

I phoned the surgery. There was indeed no one there. I got a message apologizing that I may have received a number of text messages today about appointments, which had been sent out in error. The answerphone system then told me that the message space was full, and stopped. There was no information as to what to do in an emergency.

So I called 111 as suggested, and got through immediately to a very helpful chap who promised to send a nurse. It took her about 3 hours to arrive because she was busy, but when she got here she was brilliant.

It is all very hit and miss. Some parts of the NHS still clearly care deeply about patients. Others are a complete shambles. Slowly but surely I am getting to know who I can trust and who I can’t.