I THOUGHT our NHS was better protected than down south.

How gullible can you be?

A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with lung cancer, after a chest x-ray, the cancer having spread from an earlier operation for breast cancer. I am now embarking on a lengthy treatment of chemotherapy at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. As an 80-year-old who lives alone, I naturally assumed I could be picked up and returned by Hospital Transport, as had happened for my previous hospital treatment.

But when I phoned Hospital Transport I was asked if I could manage to walk to my door unaided. When I said I could I was told I had disqualified myself and was given an Edinburgh number, which turned out to be Dial an Ambulance. I would have to register, and would have to pay. Since I live in Penicuik this would presumably be substantial, though they were unable to give me any details, as they were inundated with calls from patients who have just been made aware of the withdrawal of the free hospital transport service.

Its a daunting enough prospect to undergo chemo without working out whether I can catch a bus both to and from the hospital (more than an hour through Edinburgh), and whether it is sensible to try to do this while I am coping with chemo and its various side-effects.

When I phoned the Oncology Centre at the Western General I was told that they had been made aware of the changes and now, as a cancer patient, I would qualify for free hospital transport.

All right for me, I suppose, but what about all the other patients whom I have met in the past on Hospital Transport? Elderly patients, and those with arthritis who can manage back to their front door unaided will have to pay, or arrange to be taken and picked up from hospital by friends. However you look at it, this is a diminution of service, all in the sacred cause of saving a bit of money. Who thought this wheeze up?

Margaret Macaulay,

Deanburn, Penicuik.