THE NHS comes in for plenty of criticisms and usually negative headlines.

But they know how to deliver when it really matters. And it really mattered when my husband suddenly fell ill at home.

I rang 111 – the NHS helpline – to get some guidance and was genuinely helped by the calm voice at the end of the line. Yes, there were questions to answer but only logical ones. They promised to send a Rapid Response Paramedic and one soon arrived at the door.

He was remarkable – professional, caring and quick to summon an ambulance without worrying either of us more than we were. They were also there swiftly and had the same calming manner, taking my husband out to the ambulance and continuing tests there.

We arrived at the Royal Bolton Hospital with blue lights blaring and he was whisked away into Resusc. He turned out to have an inflamed gallbladder and was put on various drips before being taken up to a ward.

He stayed there for the best part of a week and it’s really hard to fault the fantastic care he had. The nurses were brilliant with him throughout, always asking him about his condition, ensuring he was pain-free as much as possible and comfortable.

They were friendly and interested in him as a person, and reassuring to me as his worried wife. Their patience really was endless – even in the face of one particularly cantankerous patient who kept referring to them as “Oi, you.”

I can’t think of any other place where someone quite so rude would have been treated with quite so much patience and continued care in spite of it.

What struck me most is that this culture of caring goes right across the NHS, right across the hospital. I don’t think my husband’s experience on this particular ward (F4) was any different than anywhere else there.

In fact, I’ve been a patient there myself and it’s not. Friends have also related positive experiences in the same way.

Yet, the poor media coverage continues because it’s budgets, problems and isolated negative incidents inevitably capture the headlines.

All I know is that, in the NHS, we have a goldmine, something really special. Although financial cuts strain its services and there is absolutely no doubt more resources are needed across the board, the principles of Aneurin Bevan’s dream all those years ago still burn bright today.