I first went because I had a gastric ulcer. It was in 1944 and there was no National Health Service then. I was suffering from indigestion according to my doctor. I said to him, ‘I can’t understand why I can’t breathe properly.’ But he said it was indigestion and indigestion it had to be till I had a haemorrhage and was rushed into hospital to have a blood transfusion. I often think that these people who talk about blood and breeding and who have to have blood transfusions don’t know what poor old plebeian stuff they’ve got knocking around in them. I remember when they were giving it to me I said, ‘I hope you’re giving me blue blood, I’m only used to the best.’ The nursing was splendid but the food and amenities for the patients in the public wards were deplorable. And the lack of privacy most distressing, especially for older people and particularly for those who had gone into hospital for the very first time.
