Came home tonight utterly exhausted from a full day's work when I'm not really there yet. But the good news is I'm now done until January 4. Loads of time to get my feet back on the ground!

Flipped on the news and heard a terrible story about a 19-year old girl who died after being turned away from the hospital. She was taken by her family at 6am, only to be told that she had the flu and to go home. By 7pm, she was returned to the hospital but it was too late. She died of meningitis, which could have easily been treated had she been taken seriously on the first visit.

I thought what I saw was bad! How many people have to die or become invalid because of the sorry state of our medical care? What is the option? There's no choice when you become ill than to go to your local hospital. But if you can't trust that you will receive care, where does that leave you?

I feel sick at heart about this poor family, who must now go through Christmas after just losing their child. And to know it could have been prevented. The television news showed their tree, with her presents to her family all ready to be unwrapped.

At the end of the day, the government officials, the doctors, the nurses - they go home. But where are we left? Who do we have to complain to? And what if we do? Do we get a black mark against our name?

It's all just so scary.