Your pal the Skipper would like to offer up a heartfelt thank you to all the NHS staff who continue to support our communities here in Cornwall.

Just this weekend a colleague managed to do himself a stupid injury, something involving DIY, a vacuum cleaner, the sharp corner of a shelf and a little too much enthusiasm, I’m told.

After nearly knocking himself unconscious, this young man clamped a flannel to the top of his head, which now sported a half inch triangular gash, staggered down the stairs and called a friend to drop him up to the minor injuries unit.

There, I am led to believe, the staff did a sterling job - and on a Sunday no less. Everything from offering him wet wipes to clean  up his bloodied hands, through to first class medical care, and even cleaning up his matted hair for him.

An hour’s wait seems perfectly acceptable for such top notch - and truly caring - treatment, especially at a time when we are told ravaging hordes of holidaymakers are invading, filling up our hospitals and taking all our paracetamol.

At a time when Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is using the ‘weekend effect’ - recently disputed by science novice Stephen Hawking - to bash the NHS and enforce new contracts on doctors, this weekend showed my colleague how wonderful a health service with no upfront costs can be.

He didn’t even have to prove his identity, Cornish, British or otherwise, to get a blob of glue to the scalp and some sound concussion advice, although he was disheartened to be told not to drink.

So cheers to all our much needed Cornish NHS staff, be they in A&E, surgeries or community hospitals.