"DEAR Editor,

Last week I was eating dinner on my patio when I reached for my glass of wine and completely missed it.

When I finally got it I couldn’t find my mouth and my right leg went lazy.

My wife dragged me to the car and we arrived at A and E at Musgrove Park Hospital on a busy Friday night.

During the next two days I experienced the professional, highly efficient and overwhelming care of a community that represents the very best of this country.

From a wheelchair at the reception desk and a short wait I passed through a variety of attentive checking procedures to a stroke ward and a bed and staff making me welcome and allaying my apprehension. 

I was lucky, subsequent thorough scans and examinations showed that I had had a transient ischemic attack (TIA) and not a stroke so I was allowed back home.

I was assured I could now find the wine glass unaided but the bewildering speed and efficiency of the operation and of all the inclusive and multi-ethnic and multi-skilled people who helped me left me wondering why the whole country could not be run like the NHS. A community where caring is the name of the game.

The NHS doesn’t figure much in the minds of the contestants vying to become our new leader – it is seen as a burden but it shows the way forward.

It costs lots of money but it fosters attitudes and values that make a country great."

Nigel Griffin
Taunton