Letter

Cinderella lives on

Anything you can possibly do to highlight the tragedies of the unglamorous parts of the NHS is much appreciated. My specialty is learning disability.

When they closed down all the community dental clinics where our severely disabled patients used to be treated nobody thought to build extra theatres in the hospitals – and now the standard waiting list for a general anaesthetic for community dentistry is none months, even if you are in pain.

Chiropody is equally unglamorous and you can’t get NHS treatment without diabetes or suchlike – sitting in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy and freezing cold feet isn’t enough. And yet these are the preventive measures we are all enjoined to support to avoid more costly and painful treatment later on.

Likewise respite care in the public sector, which allows carers to recharge their batteries, is very scarce. Some parents are determined to care until they drop as the quality of the respite care available is so dreadful, with constantly changing and poorly paid staff.