"Thank you"

My 82-year-old mother was brought by ambulance into Macclesfield General A&E during the afternoon of Christmas Day. I really cannot commend too highly the staff in A&E and the Medical Admissions Unit, who demonstrated the utmost patience, kindness and compassion, together with exceptionally thorough medical care, during her short stay. On behalf of Mum, myself and my sister, I should like to thank them all so very much.

The only criticism I have is for one grumpy nurse in A&E who was at no time involved in Mum's care but, as Mum was being transferred from A&E to the Medical Admissions Unit and commented wrily to us "What a way to spend Christmas Day", said loudly (and quite unnecessarily, we thought, as Mum's comment was directed solely at myself and my partner and the reaction did upset her) words to the effect of "You ought to be in my shoes - I've been here all day". To her, I would say that, whilst the vast majority of us who are not employed by the essential services are extremely grateful to those who are and very much appreciate the fact that they do work unsocial hours, at some stage in her life she made a career choice knowing the requirements of the job. She therefore should not take out her dissatisfaction with an aspect of that career choice on the people for whom she is supposed to be caring. What makes it worse is that Mum was employed by the NHS for the whole of her working life and has done her fair share of working Christmas and other holidays.