Sitting with a friend at the fracture clinic at Southend Hospital, I innocently offered to fetch a cup of tea and a snack.

The nearby WRVS canteen had been closed, so I set off along the longest corridor in Southend.

Fortunately, not being the patient, I was fit enough get past the chicane, up the stairs and tackle the obstacle course queuing system in the new coffee shop.

I zigzagged for a while to pick up a couple of paper triangle sandwiches and make myself two cardboard cups of tea which cost me about as much as a pub lunch.

By the time I got back to the waiting area my friend, not surprisingly, was in with the doctor, so one tea went cold, which was not much of a loss.

Please, could we raise the steel shutter and bring back those jolly ladies from the WRVS?

I am sorry all I did was sign their petition. Should I have camped outside the hospital with placards and a megaphone?

Perhaps not, but at least I would have had a decent cup of tea.

Ric Morgan
Hobleythick Lane
Westcliff