AT first glance, the survey published today showing that one in 20 people over 65 believe they have been refused health treatment because of their age is disturbing.

But rather than taking this as proof that the elderly are discriminated against in the NHS, as does the charity Age Concern which commissioned it, it should still be a charge that the government ought to thoroughly investigate.

Age Concern, after all, has an axe to grind like any interest group, but it seems to be collating perceptions as much as actualities when this survey's conclusion is that so many older people feel it is the case that they have been denied treatment on age grounds.

There is, of course, some sustenance for this sentiment in the fact that, generally, older people may require more, longer and, so, dearer treatment and may, as a result, deem themselves to be members of a less-popular patients' group than others.

It may also be the case that what evidence, real or perceived, there is of older people being refused treatment is a legacy of the now-ditched, commercially-driven GP fundholding system that the previous government introduced as part of the NHS internal market. For one of its faults was that it tended to focus on money as well as care and it is possible that some fundholding practices might have been averse to "expensive" patients because of the pressures they put on budgets.

There is, however, no dispute that rationing of treatment on the NHS does exist.

That is a grim fact that has to be accepted simply because, though the health service does a creditable job with the resources it does have, it does not have infinite ones.

But if, as a result, it sometimes does have to make hard choices and set priorities, they should not include either deliberate or casual refusal of treatment purely on grounds of age alone.

And if proof can be given of this happening, the result should be that any doctor, nurse or other NHS employee found guilty of such discrimination is barred from working with or for the health service - for it would amount to a denial of a basic human right.

Yet, for all the disturbing claims of this survey, is this really happening on even a minor scale in this country?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.