Letter: Appalling abdication

Sir: You report (28 January) that 'the Department of Health will not monitor gaps in services or failure to meet people's needs after the new system of Care in the Community begins in April'.

I am registered blind, and active in a self-help group for visually impaired people; until this week I was also principal carer for my elderly mother-in-law. In both capacities, I have personal experience of present inadequacies in meeting need; in both capacities, I meet professionals who assure me that the situation is likely to worsen after April. I am therefore appalled to hear of this abdication of responsibility by the department.

It is clearly essential that such monitoring takes place if there is to be any rational evaluation of the new system. If the Government will not do so (and I believe it should), who will? I should be interested to hear from the local government associations and the leading national voluntary bodies what plans they have for doing so.

Yours faithfully,

JANE ANDERSON

Nantwich, Cheshire

28 January