WHEN Dr Dan Coates scurries towards me as I wait for him in the busy reception of Colchester General Hospital, I have no idea moments earlier he'd had to deliver the heart-breaking news to a family their loved one had died following a cardiac arrest.

"You've arrived in the thick of it," he says.

And for the next two hours, as I watch sometimes chaotic scenes in A&E Resus - the resuscitation area - Dr Coates was nothing but courteous, unflapable and refreshingly frank about work.

My visit to observe him is during what is, perhaps, the most difficult period in the hospital's history.

Days before my visit, the Care Quality Commission had given the hospital another damning report which means it will be in special measures for another three months at least.

The hospital's woes before that latest chapter have been laid bare for all to see, ranging from difficulties in recruiting nurses, serious cash flow problems - including a £39million defecit - and a turnover rate of chief executives which could rival managers at a premier league football club.

So here I was - away from the headlines, the figures and the hospital executives - on the frontline.

Dr Coates leads me to the desk at the centre of the six-bay ward to give me a run down of his role, while seeming to juggle a multitude of queries from colleagues and phone calls.

"I am in charge of all the admissions and referrals, either referred by GPs, A&E or clinics," he said.

"In 12 hours, we get about 40 to 60 referrals and in 24 hours it can get up to 60 to 80 patients. The problems are wide and varied."

Those referals are patients deemed acutely unwell and his role is to oversee it all as the medical registrar that day - the on-call person for medicine.

As I follow him to his first check on a patient, a diabetic man admitted after vomitting for most of the weekend, he pretty much sums his position up.

"My job entails a lot of flying around and multi-tasking."

The patient had been given insulin intravenously and is being monitored.

Before long Dr Coates moves on to another task - what seems like inputting endless of amounts of medical data into a computer.

"Normally my shift starts at 8.30am and finishes at 9.30pm and I am on the go.

"I try to get myself a cup of coffee when I can and try to get myself something to eat.

"There are no set breaks. There is no-one to relieve me of my duties. I personally only take a break when the work is under control.

"Unless I am happy, I don't take a break but that is my choice because I don't like leaving things until they are under control," he says.

Dr Coates is supported by three doctors and a consultant and a small team of nurses but it still feels like things are stretched.

"Colchester is a busy hospital with lots of patients coming through the doors and it's a vibrant place to work.

"I think it is down to patient volume and I think that is reflective of the area.

"The area has a high elderly population and some pockets of social deprivation and with that comes a lot of health care itself.

"I do love my job. It is what I wanted from the age of seven. I was born with a cleft lip and palate so had 42 operations. I spent a lot of time in and out of hospital.

"It sounds really naff but I really wanted to give a bit back."

Without prompting from me, our chat turns to the elephant in the room - that CQC report which rated the hospital inadequate and said some agency staff were poor in quality of care.

Dr Coates said: "The hospital is under scrutiny. You put any hospital under the microscope and you are going to find problems with it here and there.

"I think this hospital is friendly. For me it is no different to any other hospital and the staff try really hard.

"I have worked in some exemplar hospitals. What really matters for me is the team you work with.

"It's a shame the recent events mean recruitment and retention of potentially really good staff is potentially at risk.

"I think it is important we get on with business as usual."

But with the demands on staff, it doesn't take a doctor to diagnose things must be hard.

Dr Coates says: "The hardest part for me is when it gets busy to the point where you feel you cannot give the time to more patients that I need to, although I want to."

Our chat comes to an abrupt stop as he must tend to another patient.

This time, it's a woman with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Her x-rays are looked at and there is a clear patch where the infection can be seen.

The woman will need to stay in hospital for a few days and be administered oxygen and antibiotics.

And it's back to Dr Coates's desk for more paperwork.

"I have to write everything I have done on a piece of paper.

"You cannot get away from that - we have to have a legal record of everything we do and Colchester is still a very paper heavy trust," he says.

A red phone rings and a colleague warns an emergency patient is 15 minutes away.

In that time, staff approach Dr Coates asking for him to authorise patients' medication.

"While I am trying to see patients, I am constantly interupted with people coming to see me," he explains.

So much so, I barely notice Dr Coates wearing a bleeper on his uniform in case he's needed by the cardiac arrest team which he also leads as part of his role.

"Just before you arrived, I finished breaking the news a patient had died after a cardiac arrest to his relatives," he says.

"Would I encourage a younger person now at A-Level to study medicine? Yes I would," he said.

"Every day is different, every day is varied and you have no idea what you are going to get from one minute to the next.

"The downsides are the hours and you have to study a lot.

"But you have the ability to use the knowledge you have accrued to make somebody's time better and why wouldn't you want to do that?"

And with that I can see Dr Coates's needs to treat more patients, fill in more tick box lists and maybe even get a cup of coffee, are greater than mine.

So I leave him to complete the next seven hours of his shift as he must - simply in awe of his commitment.