MAVIS Reeves story (LET, May 27) about being 323rd on a waiting list for treatment is not out of the ordinary as far as treatment on the NHS goes.

It's more than four years since I was put on a waiting list for a pain clinic at Hope Hospital, in Salford. Only recently have I discovered that they removed patients from the lists without telling them.

Could this possibly be to manipulate performance figures without declaring how they had actually achieved this miraculous reduction?

Having suffered for six year with a treatable condition, my faith in the NHS has gone. It has cost more than £40,000 in benefits for me to be out of work. The benefits system is doing all it can to try and get me into work, but the obvious solution -- treating my condition -- is ignored.

I have shown that my condition has been diagnosed and is treatable, but they say that it is not their job to pursue the treatment or the lack of.

My main concern is that the longer my illness is left untreated, the worse it will get. The benefits system should review the treatment given to anyone on sickness benefits and intervene if necessary.

If the NHS had to pick up the sickness benefits bill, then maybe they would have an incentive to give the right treatment sooner. As it stands, not treating someone saves them money and taking names off waiting lists looks like they are achieving their targets.

Name and address received.