LIKE most people in Britain I sympathise with the lady who is being refused treatment for breast cancer on the grounds of cost.

Presumably, like most citizens of this country, she has paid her taxes to the exchequer, therefore on these grounds treatment should be a matter of course.

We see very often people coming into the country and getting treatment for a great variety of diseases who have not paid any money into the system. This causes great hardship for the people like the lady in question.

When will the governments of this country realise that we cannot any longer be a walk-in clinic for these people? We are gradually spending our wealth on matters that do not really concern us. We should be looking after our own people.

Treatments should be based on a simple system: if you have not paid in then you cannot take out, unless you have private insurance.

We cannot keep working on the basis that we can police the world's trouble spots and care for all the sick people who cross our borders. It is a financial disaster for the hard working and tax paying population of this country.

T J Ryder,

Priory Gardens,

North Lane, York.

Updated: 11:04 Tuesday, February 14, 2006