So grateful for NHS carée...and mortified

SOMEONE love has died. She'd been in hospital since early December, just as the NHS crisis began to peak and we know the rest; the monumental waits, the often devastating consequences, the terrible state of everything.

And that is true, of course, and much, much more. But I want to tell you about another side. What's going on quietly behind the scenes, against all odds.

The care my family member received was éé exemplary. Consistent. Faultless. She told me so every time I visited.

It was one of the last things she ever said to me.

The hospital was like a war zone, the building literally crumbling, there were holes in the faded, peeling grey walls of the wards and corridors.

They were clearly, even to my completely untrained eye, woefully short staffed. And yet in the worst conditions, they somehow provided the very best care. They were gentle, respectful, kind. Calm, efficient, attentive.