I SYMPATHISE with North Somerset Council chairman Roz Willis, who claimed elderly people are being forced to sell their homes to pay for care which

I SYMPATHISE with North Somerset Council chairman Roz Willis, who claimed elderly people are being forced to sell their homes to pay for care which should be provided 'free' by the NHS after she was forced to put her mother Marian's house on the market to pay for her residential care when she believes she should have been entitled to financial help from the NHS. Once the envy of the world, the NHS still gives us the great blessing of treatment without fear of cost, but it has been beset by outdated practices, bureaucratic obesity and a lack of effective management and control. Perhaps worst of all, matron has gone. The once fearsome figure with draconian powers over nursing, cleaning and catering has become a remote director of nursing services padding about the administrative corridors of power. I'm sure if Florence Nightingale were carrying her lamp around NHS hospitals today, she would be searching for the people in charge. So I hope North Somerset Council chairman Roz Willis' report will get across loud and clear, so elderly people are not forced to sell their homes and that the NHS will provide care free and give value for our money.D F COURTNEY - Victoria Park, Weston