The BMA has been quick to deny claims made by Age Concern yesterday that the over-65s are being discriminated against when it comes to medical treatment.

It insists that elderly patients aren't being removed from the lists of some GPs because they're costing the practice too much money, and that they aren't being denied treatment in favour of younger people.

That might well be the sincerely-held BMA view and the way most doctors work, but it's at odds with the findings of the Age Concern survey and with anecdotal evidence which I've come across in recent years.

One in ten of the people over 50 surveyed by Age Concern believed they had been treated differently by GPs and other NHS staff since they hit their half century, and one in 20 of those aged over 65 felt they had been refused treatment on grounds of their age. I find all this most alarming - particularly, as a 55-year-old, the implication that 50 is some sort of threshold beyond which we become less worth spending NHS time and money on. That's no age, is it, 50? We're still youngsters given the ages to which many people live nowadays.

Either the people making these claims are suffering from a sort of collective paranoia brought on by their advancing years (unlikely), or they are telling the truth as they see it based on their own experience. BMA chairman Dr Ian Bogle thinks their perception is wrong. He says he believes that the vast majority of doctors treat older patients well and fairly. And I'm sure he's right. But what about the minority?

For what it's worth, there's no doubt in my mind that some GP practices, and some hospitals, are denying some people treatment because they're old. This is something we should all be fighting against - even those of us who are only junior seniors because, with a bit of luck, we'll one day be old ourselves.

If the practice spreads, what chances will we have of getting the treatment and care to enable us to continue with a good quality of life for as long as possible?

It's good to hear that Health Secretary Frank Dobson is committed to "reducing any variations in care that older people receive from the NHS and its partners". Let's hope that he really means it and is able to deliver.

I Don't Believe It!

If you're going to moan, don't do so half-heartedly. That seems to be the philosophy of Eric Firth, of Wilsden, judging by his letter prompted by Lynda Lee-Potter's comments about Bradford. Here are some extracts from it.

"Of course Bradford is a filthy city. So is Leeds. So are Newcastle, Gateshead, Liverpool, Birmingham, London, Portsmouth, Plymouth. England is a nasty, filthy country.

"Walk out of your front door and see miles of filthy, ugly, depressing black tar, with broken paving stones for non-motorists; schoolboys with shower hoods and hard faces; girls who lack the well-scrubbed, glowing, healthy look of American, Australian or Continental girls; empty, decaying buildings, empty for years...

"Look at the English people, shabbily dressed, unhealthy-looking: pale, blotchy skin, round shoulders, sagging chests, protruding stomachs and teeth so bad Americans and Australians crack jokes about them.

"Green fields, trees, flowers and wild life are cleared every day while we tell our young to worry about the forests of Brazil. Our young sit huddled before TV and computer screens because there are no swimming pools, gyms, running tracks, basket and volley ball courts, etc., while our Lottery money and charity goes overseas so that leading lights in this lucrative business can holiday abroad at our expense....

"The TV licence goes up again so that the BBC parasites can make more holiday shows and other programmes that just happen to need an overseas setting in a sunshine land in our winter.

"The British people are depressed, ripped off and browned off - revolution ingredients. The whole country should be blown up."

That, I reckon, is what's known as not mincing your words.

While we're in a plain-speaking mood about the state of the nation, here's what Dorothy Stringer has to say about it in a letter prompted by Mike Priestley's musings, on his Saturday page the other week, about Land of Hope and Glory.

"It used to exist. I can assure you of that," says Mrs Stringer. "But sadly it does not ring true any more. I am no politician but I do know right from wrong. When Edward Heath was PM he betrayed the country by selling us into the Common Market, as it was known then. Maggie Thatcher followed it up.

"Now it is a land of hatred, jealousy, money-making, violence and vandalism with no respect or loyalty for anyone or anything. What is being done now, including by some politicians, is an insult to Sir Winston Churchill and the men and women who fought and died in two world wars to keep England free.

"So now you can see why Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia do not ring true any more, although there are still some genuine, kind and helpful people around."

If you have a gripe about anything, drop a line to me, Hector Mildew, c/o Newsroom, T&A, Hall Ings, Bradford BD1 1JR, email me or leave any messages for me with Mike Priestley on (44) 0 1274 729511.

Yours Expectantly,

Hector Mildew

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.