From Dr Jane Bowskill, Binstead:

We do not need any more houses on the Island until the NHS and education departments can cope.

One month ago my GP sent me to St Mary’s with possible appendicitis.

I spent an hour in pain waiting for triage, despite being in tears with pain and vomiting.

I then waited another hour to be seen in A and E.

After blood tests and a scan I was transferred to to the medical assessment unit, initially to a windowless tiny room, and then to a hot windowless cell — apparently the old operating theatre.

It was too hot to sleep and had light beaming through the door from the treatment room.Why do hospitals not let people sleep?

The following day, a porter took me to Whippingham Ward, supposedly a surgical ward.

There was no bed so I went back to MAU.

I was eventually transferred but not to a surgical ward.

I was in a bay full of confused noisy 90 year olds.

I asked if I could have somewhere quiet to get some sleep — no chance — so came home.

Some 25 per cent of St Mary’s beds are occupied by elderly people with nowhere to go, which means other patients can’t get appropriate treatment.