SIR – I object to the term ‘bed blockers’ (T&A, March 14). I prefer the more respectful title ‘sick patients’.

My three uncles spent the last weeks of their life known as bed blockers, 70 years ago they returned to this country as war heroes.

It is not our fault that, in spite of a fast rising population ‘they’ in their wisdom chose to sack staff and close down smaller hospitals such as Shipley, Salts and Rawdon, just to name a few who were doing a worthwhile job serving just such a purpose.

I shudder at the thought that I may have to go into hospital in the future, knowing I will cease to be a person or a patient, becoming either a bed blocker or a geriatric.

Elaine Neale, Gordon Terrace, Idle