Jeremy Clarkson needed ‘urgent hospital treatment’ after saying NHS ‘past sell-by date’

The Clarkson’s Farm star, 65, has revealed he became very ‘poorly’

Jeremy Clarkson has said he was rushed to hospital earlier this month for “urgent treatment” – after describing the NHS as a “creaking monster”.

The Clarkson’s Farm star, 65, has revealed he became very “poorly” on October 5 and he headed to an NHS hospital because the nearest private doctor was two hours away in London.

The TV presenter explained he underwent a treatment which was “Defcon 1 painful” and was then “forced to stay the night”.

In his column for The Sunday Times newspaper, Clarkson explained he felt bad about his hospital trip because it came just hours after he criticised the NHS in his previous offering for the publication.

He wrote: “Last weekend, my column in this newspaper was about how all the fun in our lives, and most of the money, was being sucked into the bottomless abyss that is the NHS. I said it was a creaking monster, past its sell-by date …

“And then, nine hours after that piece appeared on the nation’s kitchen tables, I needed to go to hospital in something of a hurry. Oh s***. I’m not going to tell you what was wrong, because that’s none of your business.”

He went on to add: “I was poorly and I needed urgent hospital treatment and the NHS was my only option … I had a very hot neck when I realised this and wondered if I should maybe tiptoe into the hospital in a Piers Morgan facemask.

“I didn’t think they’d kill me. They’re not allowed to do that. But they would probably urinate in my tea.”

However, despite undergoing a painful treatment, Jeremy admitted he had a positive experience at the NHS hospital.

He wrote: “The treatment was Defcon 1 painful. They had to chisel me off the ceiling with a spatula afterwards and I was forced to stay the night, but it was OK. I’ve slept in way worse hotels …

“I genuinely couldn’t find anything to moan about at all. The doctors, the nurses and everyone I met were kind. It was all spotless. Lunch was kids’ food -brilliant, and they even made me better – for which I shall be eternally grateful.”

It comes after the former Top Gear host underwent life-saving heart surgery in October 2024 to have two stents fitted and he previously admitted he “had no idea” he had come to close to death last year as he was so busy filming the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm and launching his pub The Farmer’s Dog.

Asked if he realised he was at death’s door, he told The Sun newspaper: “I had no idea, no idea at all. I just thought, ‘Well, I am working very hard’. But it was very tricky.

“The rest [of the series] is, ‘Oh, here he is farming and Kaleb and Charlie and Gerald and Lisa – all the usual suspects. Then suddenly, in the last two programmes, it just goes off like a bomb’. You can see me becoming more and more ill as the days go on, because I just lose my sense of humour, lose my ability to stay calm.

“I get in a proper old panic. I didn’t know at the time. I knew I wasn’t being me. I was trying to get the pub open for the August Bank Holiday weekend and, at the same time, doing the harvest on the farm. And it’s very well documented I ended up in hospital with a heart problem. ”

He also admitted it was an “incredibly stressful” time and not the best idea trying to launch the pub at harvest time.

He added: “When you see how stressful it was trying to do those two things … there’s simply no sleep. I was coming back knackered from a day trying to get the pub open, and having to get straight into the tractor to do grain carting through the night.

“You can’t make the harvest wait. If it’s dry, ready and fit, as they say in farming – if the wheat and barley are fit – you’ve got to get out there. God, it was knackering.

“And the amount of things that went wrong in the two days in the opening weekend … I know everyone’s going to say: ‘You made that up, it can’t possibly be that disastrous’.

“But it was. It was one thing after another after another. It was incredibly stressful. That was idiotic to try and do what I tried to do over those weekends.”