I HAVE just spent two hours being passed around Southampton General Hospital (SGH) on the telephone trying to get details of the condition of an elderly neighbour whom I got emergency help for two nights ago.

Eventually, thoroughly frustrated, I contacted the duty manager.

“I’m really sorry, sir,” she said very politely, “but we can’t give you information if you are not a relative.”

The gentleman in question has no relatives or he would have been looked after better and not have got himself in the state he was in two nights ago in Weston, when with my assistance it took him two hours to walk 200 yards.

The motto of SGH should probably be: “Don’t ring us, we won’t tell you.”

TOM DOAK, Weston, Southampton.