Sir – People in this area should consider moving out of the Thames Valley as they get ill or disabled.

 

Official figures by the Health and Social Care Information Centre confirm that those who live in this area are twice as likely to be refused NHS funding to pay for their needs as the average nationally.

 

Indeed in some parts of the country three times the number who are assessed are successful in getting funding.

 

What is more, the example from within my family shows that the assessment for this entitlement, which, according to the NHS’s own guidelines, should take 12 weeks, has taken in our case 16 months, with all the expense and complication for the patient and family that this entails.

 

It seems to me that we are being blatantly discriminated against in this area and since it is apparently well known, and carried out without any apology or justification, it is a disgrace that our elected and unelected representatives are not taking urgent action to end it and give those who live here the same rights as other areas of Britain. 

 

Philip Carter, Bicester