So the ambulance service is getting it in the neck again for delays - and their management are daft enough to apologise for a system that is not their fault.

I gather hospitals are still covering their own backs by leaving people in ambulances outside.

That’s a queue of ambulances that cannot do their job. Then there are the cuts and ridiculous conditions that have left ambulances in a poor condition.

An ambulance from Tumble was regularly sent to wait on the side of the road to provide cover when all the ambulances from our local station were out on call. Tumble now has been closed as unnecessary.

I also remember the fleet of new ambulances which were immediately condemned and sold off cheap as chip vans and the like, and were operational for years after.

I even chased one for a friend who needed a new van, but it was a bit too dear for us.

About ten years ago I accompanied my late mother into Morriston Hospital and the labouring ambulance struggled to get up the hill from Pontarddulais.

Another time, at Glangwili, I found the ambulance men and women had been banned from making a cup of tea while they waited for the hospital to catch up.

Appalling.

And they do not even get sensible support from their own management.

I was at a meeting where the new Welsh ambulance boss told a story he thought, hilariously, told the story of their time being wasted: an old lady who phoned because her cat was missing.

Except, of course, she had dialled 999 and been directed to the wrong service. Police or Fire Brigade could have been involved.

Fortunately 999 operators are usually more intelligent than their management.

Whenever I’ve dialled 999 and said I wasn’t sure whether I should have called, the response has always been “Better safe than sorry”.