It was a freezing cold November afternoon, and I was driving to my last visit of the day. Get this done, write my notes, go home and warm up. Most likely with a takeaway. I was starving. The patient I was about to see was a lady with dementia, called Cynthia, who’d recently been discharged from hospital. Her mobility had suffered due to illness. Our aim was to try and build up her exercise tolerance, all while her husband, Dennis, took care of her in her recovery.

After a quiet start to the day, a call reached our triager. A lady, with MS, who I will refer to as Sue, said that she could no longer walk and hadn’t moved from the sofa for the last month.