THE figure on the display in the emergency department waiting room showed 291 patients treated that day.

Then midnight struck, and the figure went back to zero. I must have been treated within the first three, the next day before I left, just before 1am.

The 291 figure — that’s around 12 patients an hour or one every five minutes — was a slow day at this particular hospital, far from my home.

Incidentally, one of the least considered things about the NHS is that it is national, and wherever I am in the country, I can get looked after.

I have found statistics that show this hospital’s emergency waiting room is used to treating somewhere between an astonishing 330 to 350 patients per day.

I have no idea how the staff who were on duty while I was there manage to see so many patients in one day. Everyone looked completely rushed off their feet to me.

I have never had anything but total respect for NHS workers. I have seen them save the life of my now dearly departed mother-in-law and expertly treat my mom, dad, aunties and uncles, my wife and myself for various serious ailments.

In a previous job, I toured the night shift with local union reps and saw how the chronic understaffing drove workers to and sometimes beyond the point of exhaustion.

I remember on one visit chatting to staff as they had a short break when one of their colleagues came in, slumped on the chair and started crying, saying, “I can’t do any more.”

She looked like she was in need of medical help herself. She didn’t need me around, and a smiling glance from her colleagues confirmed that it was time for me to leave.

Far too many people talk of the NHS in terms of nurses and doctors. But there are so many other people on duty that long evening who help to make the NHS work.

During the few hours that I sat in the waiting room or was being treated, I of course saw doctors and nurses of all levels, but I also saw receptionists, cleaners, porters, ambulance staff, security and radiographers. I have probably missed some folks out who I failed to recognise.

I also saw people carrying out these roles from a wide variety of different backgrounds and ethnicities. It’s clear to anyone who cares to admit it that without migration to Britain, our healthcare system would grind to a shuddering halt.

It wouldn’t just be that waiting times would grow longer without them — as they surely would — but it would absolutely and completely just stop.

I found myself wondering whether the racists who have been gathering to abuse people lately have ever turned down medical treatment from someone from a different nationality or race?

Over the years, I have heard stories of just such things happening. I always hope that the answer is “well off you pop (or words to that effect), we have work to do” and not simply replacing the person with someone more palatable to the racist.

One of the less palatable things about the evening — aside from the understaffing — is the sight of people leaving the waiting room having to find the money to pay for parking.

This scandalous way for hospital trusts to make money should be immediately stopped. There’s no decent excuse why this should be continued.

I, of course, do not expect for a moment that the current Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, will do anything of the sort. If anything, he would be more likely to insist on higher charges or even bring in more competition into the “business.” It’s the Labour Party way after all!

The thought that Streeting is following in the footsteps of the great Aneurin Bevan, who fought tooth and nail to set up an NHS that was free for all and available to all, is but one of the indicators of how far Labour have fallen.

Admittedly, Bevan is a high bar to meet, but Streeting appears intent on going in the opposite direction rather than meeting the challenge set by the great man.

In years to come, nobody will even remember Streeting, who will follow a long line of health secretaries who have all seemed determined to slash the NHS to the bare bones rather than defend the principles on which it was founded.

Some years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the giant Siemens complex in Berlin. Giant, as a description, doesn’t do the place justice. It was basically a small town within Berlin.

The reason I raise it here is that they showed our delegation some of the equipment, such as scanners, that they produced for the health sector.

One of the things they told us was that their scanners had chips inserted in them that sent a signal out to say if something was going wrong with the machine and what the problem was. This meant that engineers could be on site to resolve the problem before it became a bigger issue.

Thank heavens for that! Any of the pieces of vital equipment going down for even a moment would be a catastrophe for an already overstretched service.

You can’t just turn people away in the NHS because a piece of vital equipment is down. It could literally be a matter of life and death.

The NHS and the people who perform heroics every day to keep us healthy or to put us back together when something goes wrong must be defended against the predators at all costs.

The money makers see the opportunities for profits that can be made from the NHS.

Some of them are already there employing and often exploiting workers in contracts for things such as cleaning, portering and catering.

The whole of the NHS should be in public hands and paid for by taxpayers as originally envisaged by Bevan.

In the same way that governments say that one of their top priorities should be the military to supposedly keep us safe, as the military-industrial complex makes huge profits. Then, keeping the population healthy should be seen as an even greater priority.

The people of Britain deserve the best health service in the world. Not because we are better than anyone else, but because we can actually afford it, and it is what the people want.

Every poll without fail puts the NHS right at the top of what people value most about this country. But politicians, in hock to billions of pounds of profit generated by the military-industrial complex, seem more intent on finding the latest war adventure to go and support so that the latest killing systems can get a run out.

Bevan said it best: “It [the NHS] will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.”

Thanks to all those involved in my treatment the other evening. You did the rest of the NHS family credit.