Fergus Finlay: No socket, no pillow, not an extra blanket to be found — my night in A&E

The health service is in many ways as good as any in the world — but when it isn't, it's for stupid, unnecessary reasons, writes Fergus Finlay

Two of us were shown a space at the back of A&E. It contained a wooden armchair and three (what seemed to be) leather recliners. On inspection, all of the recliners were broken. File photo

With all its faults, our health service — including our hospital service — is often as good as any in the world, and better than most. Sadly, it doesn’t have that reputation among a lot of the people it serves, and that undermines it day after day and makes it easier to criticise.

And here’s the thing. If you leave terrible mistakes to one side — and that’s not easy because there have been a lot of them, as in every health system in the world — the experience of most people, most of the time, is that it can be hard to get into hospital.