Britain's health service is a gem. I should know.

On Dec 12, I spent a fascinating, if at times painful, day in the company of Chinese, Filipina, Sri Lankan, Polish and English women. And it was all free - well, sort of.

Let me explain. They were all nurses working for Britain's National Health Service at Guy's Hospital, and their job was to use equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to monitor me in a series of tests.

They were at the same time professional and friendly - I even managed to persuade the Chinese nurse, who hailed from Harbin, that she should buy a copy of China Daily's UK edition from the news agent downstairs.

Her Filipina colleague sang cheerfully as she worked.

This, for me, represents the National Health Service at its finest.

Sadly, of late, it has become a political football, with the UK's left-wing parties claiming the right-wing Conservative government of Theresa May is hell-bent on privatizing it. (In a word, Theresa, DON'T).

Add to that a drip-feed of claims, mainly from so-called Little Englanders - foreigners who travel to Britain specifically to be treated for free in the system.

One estimate I've seen, which I've no reason to disbelieve, is that so-called health tourists cost the NHS - and therefore the British taxpayer - 1.8 billion pounds a year (2.1 billion euros; $2.2 billion), of which only an estimated 500 million pounds is recoverable.

But it's a bit more complex than that. Foreign visitors from outside the EU, who come here specifically for free treatment, cost this country as much as 280 million pounds a year on top of that 1.8 billion pounds, and that is certainly unrecoverable.

Here's the wrinkle: When you check into the NHS facility, nobody asks for identification, and emergency treatment is automatic. If you are a foreign national, there are signs throughout NHS facilities requesting you politely to register with reception.

How very British.

When I had a bad road crash in the US way back in 1973, I lay on a gurney in the emergency treatment room in Ohio and was asked to provide details on my insurance coverage before they continued.

How very American.

NHS staff themselves have said it is not their job to act as a de facto border security force, demanding identity cards or passports from patients.

So what happens now is that for patients within the EU, the NHS can recover money from their respective countries.

But the figure for so-called health tourists is just a drop in the ocean. The NHS is Britain's largest employer, with a budget of 116.4 billion pounds and a permanent staff of 1.7 million. It is the world's fifth-largest employer, beating labor-force-heavy outfits like China's state energy sector and Indian Railways.

Unbelievable, but true.

The treatment it delivers is world class, coming as it does from a wide range of nationalities at the top of their game, and using state of the art equipment.

No wonder many Britons were angered when right-wing US politicians, with a blinkered view of the world, sneeringly dismissed the NHS as "socialist" as President Barack Obama fought to introduce medical care for America's poor and underprivileged. Those right-wing politicians would prefer giant insurance companies to run things, and cream off healthy profits.

I read last year that China, which as far as I can tell has a highly complex healthcare system, has set up a joint study group with the NHS and UK government officials to see what it can learn from the UK experience.

Well, is Beijing listening? As a newly diagnosed cancer patient, I can tell you the NHS works.

I've had nothing but practical and positive support from every professional I've dealt with in the past six weeks, and the outlook is positive.

Of course, I have over the years contributed about 11 percent of my salary in national insurance payments, like everyone else here. But that falls a long way short of the tens of thousands of pounds that my treatment will cost.

From my point of view, it's money well spent.

The author is managing editor of China Daily Europe Bureau.?Contact the writer at chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com