SHORTLY after reading your feature on the elderly lady in Weardale suffering from the new NHS rules about transport (Echo, Nov 4), I was introduced to a pleasant lady from the NHS who had come to assess me for a wheelchair.

But it was to no purpose.

I had requested an assessment a year ago as my existing chair was becoming unserviceable. This chair had been privately purchased for my wife due to delay in responding to her urgent requirement nine years previously. Having to wait one year for assessment is completely ridiculous.

The Domiciliary Podiatry Service is no better. I am diabetic and prior to entering residential care attended a clinic at my GP’s surgery. Now unable to walk, I need a regular service in residence, but I am told it is available only once in 12 to 14 weeks. I have an ingrowing toenail which has the tendency to go septic and could lead to serious complications. Likewise I have needed to obtain private service. No useful purpose is served by running services half cock. They are inefficient and costly. Urgent action is needed to eliminate these practices. Those who run the NHS should stop their pretence and say openly what can and cannot be achieved.

Brian G Howarth, Delves Lane, Consett