MID-AFTERNOON on Monday I was sitting quietly reading my newspaper when, totally without warning, I felt dizzy, disorientated and completely disconnected, whilst remaining fairly lucid.

As I have atrial fibrillation, for which I have been prescribed warfarin for many years, my immediate reaction was that my blood pressure had peaked.

My personal BP monitor confirmed this to be so. It was a case for a doctor.

My wife spoke to a doctor at our local health centre, only to be told he could not attend until after 6.30pm, so my wife followed his suggestion to call 999.

On getting through to the relevant emergency service my wife explained my symptoms and she was told our surgery would be first contacted and that she would receive a call back. Within very few minutes that call came and, before she had finished speaking, my wife saw the ambulance coming through our front gate.

The paramedic crew were greatly reassuring, acted with speed and supreme efficiency and so immediately I felt in safe hands.

The crew’s experienced assessment meant that I was in need of specialist care and that I should be conveyed to the JR.

On arrival at A&E, I was immediately seen and taken to the recovery room, where an in-depth inquiry into my condition took place.

Not only did I benefit from the skills of the emergency doctor and his team, but he liaised with the medical doctor in attendance who, in turn, relayed their findings to the duty cardiac consultant.

Each and every one displayed concern, an ability to be truly effective and, not least, the capability to inspire confidence that I was in the right place.

Once in the ward (7A) every consideration for my comfort was given by an enormously busy nursing staff who never failed to be cheerful and attentive.

The following morning my condition was reviewed and it was decided that I could return home as my heart rate had assumed a more normal pattern and my BP had responded likewise. But before I could leave the premises I was called upon to convince the physiotherapy team that I could walk up and down stairs unaided.

Too often a present-day claim mentality dictates that areas of dissatisfaction with the NHS should be exploited by patients, family members and MPs, so I now feel it incumbent upon me to seek to redress this imbalance and offer words of praise and thanks, and those of my wife, to those at the JR and those of the ambulance service who provided me with a measure of care beyond all expectation.

DONALD COLEMAN
Acre End Street, Eynsham