On Tuesday 13 June my 86 year old mother fell and dislocated her atificial hip. She was taken by ambulance to hospital where she waited on a trolly from 10.15am until 7.15pm, to be transferred to an orthopaedic hospital 3 miles away. She was not able to have anything to drink, eat, or any pain relief because they did not know what the other hospital were going to do with her, surgery wise etc. The wait was caused because there were no ambulances available in the city, to transport her. She had to wait for an ambulance to come from the next available NHS area, some 40 miles away. Due to staff shortages there were very few civilian staff at the first hospital, she was treated by military medical staff on secondment. At the second hospital, the nurse who admitted here was Chinease, the ward sister was from Saudi and the on call doctor was from Syria. Mom had great difficulty understanding them, or making herself understood. She arrived so late at the second hospital the theatre team waiting for her had gone home. Her hip was finally relocated 31 hours after the fall.

I'm not talking about some cottage hospital out in the sticks. This was the second largest hospital in a major UK city.

I have absolutely no criticism of the staff or the care they were able to give, but surely this situation in 2006 is not acceptable? Your comments please Mr Blair?