I recently had the misfortune to suffer a heart attack at my home in Bury.

I was taken to the Coronary Care Unit at Faifield Hospital and later moved to Manchester Royal Infirmary where a team was waiting to carry out an angioplasty procedure (a tube inserted into a coronary artery) after which I was returned returned to the CCU at Fairfield.

Now I want to publicise the outstanding treatment I received from the NHS in general and Fairfield in particular. Firstly, both the ambulance paramedics and the staff at A & E sprang into action like a well oiled machine and most importantly kept myself and my family, who were allowed to be present throughout, extremely well informed at every stage.

While I was a patient at the CCU I found that all the staff from the two lovely domestic ladies to the most senior ward sister demonstrated a level of professionalism and care which I can only describe as outstanding. From being admitted to being discharged each and every member of the unit carried out their duties with genuine care and understanding and absolutely nothing was too much trouble even at the end of a long and often arduous shift.

The food at Fairfield, considering the diverse dietary requirements at such a major hospital and the logistics involved in actually getting the food to the wards, whilet, not being five star was in fact very good indeed with a considerable choice available.

It has recently come to my notice that an acquaintance of my brother in America has just received a bill for $93,000.00 for exactly the same treatment with the final cost expected to be in excess of $100,000.00.

I have never written to a newspaper before but I feel that in this day and age when we hear of so much criticism of our services that occasionally the record needs to be put straight.

Peter Phillips Bury