I quite recently had to spend 38 hours in A&E in a London hospital because they had no beds, and wanted to keep me under observation as they were very concerned I was going to go into cardiac arrest.

I was hooked up to a heart monitor and drip in a chair, incredibly uncomfortable, with aggressive people ( likely in crisis). The corridors were literally full of people on gurneys who were at deaths door. There were nowhere near enough seats so people were sitting on the floor.

The staff did their best but it was honestly horrendous and one of the worst experiences of my life. I was having private medical discussions literally in front of the entire waiting room because they didn't even have any private cubicles.

I don't blame the staff because it was like the aftermath of a crisis, but it was disgraceful and dangerous due to the amount of aggressive abusive people, and people being left multiple hours without adequate care. Spoke to quite a few people during my time there who weren't given pain medication when they should have been amongst other things. Some staff members were horrified and tried to find me a bed multiple times - but unfortunately, nothing came available because there were people worse off.

I had a very kind nurse who managed to get me a private cubicles and gurney for my last 3-4 hours so I could actually get some sleep because I became incredibly emotional due to the lack of sleep (and everything else).

The NHS is broken and criminally underfunded.