ON 'Tonight with Trevor McDonald' on ITV on February 18, the documentary showed a hospital down south where patients were being left out in corridors because all the beds in wards were full.

And why were they full? Well, one of the reasons was due to homes for the elderly being closed.

Now the question here in Burnley is, do we want it to happen here? We certainly don't.

Yet this is what could happen if the proposed closure of five Lancashire County homes goes ahead -- as private ones may not be able to accommodate all of the unfortunate victims of failed Labour policy.

The feeling I got watching this programme, was that the elderly patients, who were ill through no fault of their own, were treated like cattle waiting to go to the abattoir.

What a terrible state our National Health Service, has got itself in despite extra funding. Where is all the money going?

It's nothing short of a scandal the way we treat the elderly and infirm.

It has been suggested we should do what they do in Australia and sponsor our homes for the elderly with money from commercial interests which don't play any part in running them. Could this be the answer?

BRIAN WATSON, Rosehill Road, Burnley.