Last Monday I had a pouchoscopy – an examination of my ileo-anal pouch by a camera inserted where the sun doesn’t shine. All was fine after, apart from a slightly bloated feeling as they have to put air in to see what they are about.

One of the known risks of the procedure is bleeding, particularly if they take biopsies – which they did. And I had a small amount of bleeding. Until yesterday. Yesterday I had what looked like a lot. There are photos, but I’ll need to find a way of posting them so people don’t have to look if they don’t want to. I felt fine (and still do).

This morning nothing had changed. So I called the out of hours GP, who made an appointment for me to be seen at Chippenham minor injuries unit. The doctor there arranged for me to be admitted to Bristol Royal Infirmary where I had the original test. Off we trotted to the surgical admissions ward where we seen by a nurse, a doctor then admitted. Registrar followed. Fluids were sent for, results chased. All on a Sunday. They apologised when I could not be scoped on a Sunday, but would hold me overnight for observations. Food was found when it was clear no procedures would happen that day – including the amazing Cheeseslaw sandwich.

All free at point of access. Would it be better run by Virgin? I doubt it. Let’s keep the NHS public shall we Dave. Thanks.