BACKGROUND
Patients are so desperate to flee the crisis-hit Welsh NHS they are going private or moving to England, it emerged last night. Tens of thousands cross the border every year to escape lengthy waiting lists or access life-saving drugs. Nearly four times as many Welsh patients are treated in England as the other way round, official figures show. Read more >>
THE CARTOON
The cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail shows the scene in a Welsh hospital. The doctor has just taken the bandages off the head of a patient who is totally covered in bandages, but there is nobody inside. He tells the nurse, "No wonder there's no pulse Blodwen, he's escaped to England!"
VOCABULARY
1. Your pulse is the regular movement of blood as the heart pumps it round the body. • The nurse felt his wrist, checking for a pulse.
2. The expression no wonder means 'it's not surprising that'. • No wonder the children are excited - this is the first time they've been abroad.
NOTE
Blodwen is a popular name for Welsh girls.
