SINCE its formation by the post-war Labour government, the NHS has twice saved my life – once last year when I suffered a heart attack on the very day of my retirement and before that as a young boy in the late Forties when I recovered from tubercular-meningitis.

Last year, Stephen Hunter and his team gave me a new lease of life following cardiac surgery at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, all supported by wonderful nursing on Wards 31 and 32.

My subsequent recovery has been greatly assisted by carefully planned aftercare from my local GPs and a cardiac rehabilitation team.

My recovery in the late Forties was, in a way, more exceptional as ten years previously I would certainly have died, as my parents would not have been able to afford the care I needed.

As a boy from a poor home I received care from one of the foremost pioneers in the treatment of TB, supported by six months convalescence.

What a debt I owe to Clement Attlee and that wonderful Labour government. All this care was free and without condition.

If our well-heeled political elite continue the privatisation of the NHS, future generations will not be so fortunate.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland.