hope you get well soon Laurie
My experience with the system a couple of years back was one I try and forget,presented at my local hospital in actute pain and was scheduled to be moved to the local regional hospital some 25 kms away as the local one has long had its wards closed for budgetary reasons , the regional hospital though had 38 waiting admission that night so all halls and ambulances in the carpark were well full, moved there the next day , the ambos that moved me were bought in from a long way to deal with the overload , spent the afternoon in the back of the ambulance then the a@e then to a hallway and eventually sometime that night into an orthopedic ward as all the surgical beds were full, getting pain relief in the following days was at times very hard as the staff had to , while trying to do there job in the ward they were working in take my chart to the surgical ward to get the duty doctor there to authorise another shot of morphine , I can't stress how good the people are who were working in this situation and making it work the best they can , but wow they really shouldn't have to.