AS a member of one of the caring professions working in the National Health Service, I am getting more and more saddened by the use of the words "bed-blockers", a term which has become very common in the everyday language of the "new NHS".

The term is applied to those people, mainly the elderly, who do not need acute medical care and who could be cared for in a nursing home or at home but because of the lack of resources and the way funding is arrived at, no money can be found for them to be transferred to an appropriate place for their necessary care.

Therefore, an acute bed cannot be used.

This is yet another example of the chaotic planning which exists in the NHS - due to the beginning of privatisation of elderly care in the 1990s, and which is still being carried on now.

What we are seeing is the beginning of the slippery slope argument.

Old people are being treated as a "commodity" that can be dispensed with.

That person could be one of your parents, or a grandparent. What a way to treat them - many of whom have worked hard for this country in the past.

What a prospect for those people who are getting older, and whose health is not good, and have to face the future with this thought in their minds.

All the statistics point to an increase in the elderly population.

Why are the people who are responsible for the provision of beds not doing something about this very important matter before we have another crisis on our hands this coming winter?

This is another example of the lack of care and respect for the individual in our society.

Any society that doesn't care for the least able members of the community is a society which has lost heart, its social conscience, and its respect for the Biblical belief that "all people are made in the eyes of God".

CANON PAUL BROTHWELL

Hospital Chaplain

Kidderminster Hospital