ANYONE who saw Panorama recently will have been horrified at the discrimination faced by people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia who are denied access to health care.

The care needs of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are the result of a physical disease of the brain for which there is currently no cure.

When someone cannot eat, wash, dress or use the toilet unaided because of a serious medical condition the NHS should step in and provide support, as it does for people with other serious conditions.

Families are still being forced to pay for care, which should be available to them, free. It is one of the clearest examples of discrimination in the NHS.

The reports of the health service ombudsman have highlighted the appalling discrimination people with dementia and their carers face when applying for fully funded NHS care.

For thousands of people the process remains highly confusing. It is a bureaucratic nightmare, yet the government continues to claim that the system is easy to understand.

I strongly support the Alzheimer's Society's campaign for better access to NHS continuing care.

My own experience is of a system which will do everything to avoid paying money owed to my mother, who has had Alzheimer's for more than ten years

She has been in a nursing home since 1995 and I have spent eighteen months trying to get restitution for her from Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care trust.

My mother can do nothing for herself. She can't speak, or even sit up without support.

She has to have a hoist to lift her out of bed and into a chair. All her personal needs have to be attended to by carers.

Our NHS is being downright obstructive by refusing to provide continuing care to my mother and many others in the same situation.

Joan Heaton, Lancaster Street, Coppull