Editor

Jane Hibbert describes how, at 96 years of age, and for the first time, she was admonished for requesting a blood pressure check (Cambrian News Letters, 20 February), and advised to obtain a self-testing kit from a chemist.

A situation which is a mirror image of dentistry, wherein the government introduced a new and highly unpopular national contract, causing a mass exodus of dentists from the NHS into private practice, and a postcode, two-tier, dental network for the last 20 years.

Somerset was a fertile testing ground for the introduction of private dentistry, and Wendy Ritson writes from Taunton that they have no NHS dermatologists for new referrals, and she has been offered treatment at hospitals between 35 and 80 miles away, with at least four months waiting time.

A local private hospital has five dermatologists, treatment: soon. Cost: £1,000.

Roger Louvet Porthmadog

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