Letter: NHS rationing

Sir: There is nothing like a stay in a foreign hospital to make you appreciate the NHS in Britain.

I recently spent three days in a Prague hospital after being knocked down by a taxi and sustaining a fractured pelvis. I was treated with kindness by doctors and nurses but soon became aware that the prescribed treatment and the nursing care were many years behind those of the UK - only to be expected in a country which is taking its first uncertain steps to democracy and whose resources are severely stretched.

When I was transferred home to Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport, it was like entering paradise in comparison with what had gone before: bright, spacious, welcoming wards, a thorough check of my condition by a doctor who discovered injuries not previously noted, and who prescribed up-to date treatment. Above all, I noticed that the standard of nursing care was on an altogether higher level.

All is not perfect with our NHS, but it will be a long time before I shall speak ill of it.

Mrs J M BUDD

Bramhall, Cheshire