"Like sardines"

My mother was taken to A&E on 1st September after losing consciousness and fitting. I assume she was triaged before I arrived, but I found her together with many other patients on trolleys in the corridor. Conditions for both staff and patients was appalling. There was no room to sit or stand near and staff said they honestly didn't know how long it would take for her to be seen by a doctor. There appeared to be no close monitoring of the state of the patients. After nearly three hours she was moved to a cubicle. She eventually became very uncomfortable on the trolley and when requested staff managed to find a bed, but in the process of transferring her she was left sprawled on the bed, unable to pull herself up or lie down. The nurse never returned having removed the trolley, and the person who took her to X Ray was part of the security team, untrained in lifting. All this happened during the day on a fine Monday, with no adverse weather conditions and, as far as I am aware, no epidemics. What would it have been like if either (or both) of these had been the case? This is not a criticism of the staff. They did as well as possible under difficult circumstances, though one did feel they were stretched to their limits. But it was a most upsetting experience at a very worrying time, and felt like a tragedy waiting to happen.