BACK To The Floor is a popular BBC2 programme based on a very simple premise. Each show plucks the boss of a major organisation out of the boardroom and deposits them on the shop floor. In the last series, the managing director of Britain's biggest waste disposal company became a bin man, and the director of the Prison Service took up the job of Parkhurst jail warder.

Their struggles to cope at the sharp end always make entertaining viewing. And, without exception, the boss gains a valuable insight into what both their staff and customers put up with, and what might be done to improve things.

Ten days ago, John Craven went back to the floor. Mr Craven did not volunteer to return to York District Hospital - he was admitted as a patient - and he was never in charge of running it. But after working there for 20 years as a surgeon, he has built up an impressive insider's knowledge of the National Health Service.

What he discovered appalled him. The clinical care he received was "superb" - but the overcrowding was shocking.

Looking through patient's eyes, he saw that almost every aspect of the hospital was being hit by the pressure on beds. His orthopaedic ward was mostly filled with elderly patients who could not be found a bed elsewhere. Routine surgery was held up, waiting times increased.

There is a horrible familiarity to Mr Craven's experience. Staff morale must be sapped by the ordeal of coping with crisis conditions day after day. And patients are certainly being let down.

Mr Craven blames bed blocking for much of what he saw. He is right. On numerous occasions, this newspaper has highlighted the alarming and growing gulf in care home provision for elderly people.

He also attacks those responsible for providing health care in York for not speaking out. But perhaps their appreciation of the crisis is less acute than his own. Perhaps they, too, should go back to the floor.

Updated: 10:53 Tuesday, January 22, 2002