• MY lungs are bad again and I’m back in the A&E at the Royal Free Hospital.

Doctors, nurses and care staff are busy but friendly. At no point was I in a corridor or in a non-specific area of the hospital.

Treatment was begun and at all times I felt part of the process. I was informed about what was being done and why.

Nursing staff are from EU, Caribbean, Africa and Philippines. One from Cadiz, another from Rome; others from Lithuania, Romania, Nigeria, Malawi and one from Hertfordshire.

So there are fewer from the EU which may explain the staff shortage. Up on the ward, there should be six nurses on duty but there are only four. With one-third of staff missing the 12-and-a-half-hour shifts get very stressful towards “hand-over” which is neither good for staff nor patients.

Staff who cope under these conditions can only be congratulated. What they actually do is so good. More trained nurses and money to pay them a decent wage must be found but in the short term the demands to stop free movement of labour in the EU is insane.

No one who voted Brexit voted for an understaffed and over stressed hospital.

Perhaps the government’s recent delivery to the Navy of a gigantic super aircraft carrier with no aircraft is to be the model for hospitals, schools, care facilities etc – everything in place but without the staff to run them effectively.

What a catastrophic price to pay for the egos of a few silly, self-interested men (who should be in The Tower for treason). Can sovereignty ever be more valuable than an efficiently funded, staffed and run NHS?

Long may the Royal Free Hospital remain free.

GERRY JOHNSTON
Address supplied