One of my earliest memories involved listening to a very hushed discussion by my parents which was obviously not for my ears.

It turned out that both my Dad and myself needed operations to remove our tonsils. Apparently I had been “very ill” so needed help, but my father was the wage earner, so pre-NHS, he would have to provide for us.

As it turned out this was not possible so neither of us had our operations.

Some years later I had my tonsils removed, and I remember my mother saying “Thank God for the NHS, we could never have afforded that”.

Now at the age of 80 life has gone l full circle, and I am back to square one with a Tory government’s CCG deciding, contrary to my doctor’s and consultant’s recommendations, that I no longer qualify for an NHS Operation!

At a recent meeting I realised that I was not an isolated incident. One person who had lost sight in one eye, had a cataract in the other, was told the situation did not warrant an operation as “they were fit to drive”!

Fortunately the person had more common sense than the CCG, so without the op has been forced to stop driving. Several other people reported similar instances.

Liz Edge, Parkside Close, York