"What an unhelpful, uncaring and unpleasant member..."

3.45 Sunday afternoon. My wife scratched the back of her hand on a rose throne. An alarmingly big purple swelling appeared immediately. Did she need a tetanus injection, was there a danger of septicaemia? The Ashbourne walk-in centre at St Oswald's hospital is advertised as being open until 4pm. Our car has one of those clever clocks that are controlled by radio: it is as accurate as Big Ben. As I turned off the ignition, the clock was reading 3.56. We were inside in ten seconds. The inner grille was closed. A member of staff was talking to someone out of sight in a room off the foyer. They saw us, waved us to go away and pointed to their watch. They then shouted 'It's gone four, we're closed'. I shouted back 'It's not quite four' they marched up to the grille, squared their shoulders and said very loudly 'It's gone four'. This member of staff refused to look at my wife's hand and told us to either dial 111 or go to the walk in centre in Derby. Then they turned their back and walked away. We went back to the car. I turned the ignition key. The clock read 3.59.