An ear surgeon has compared Wales to a third world country and accused it of cruelty for refusing to give cochlear implants to deaf people.

In letter to a young deaf patient, Miss Andrea Price of Llangurig in Montgomeryshire, who lost her hearing in 2005, surgeon Jonathan Osborne, of Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust, writes: “Health Commission Wales has recently produced a document which denies cochlear implants to all adults in Wales, apart from those patients who had previous meningitis.

“Wales is therefore the only home nation to deny this treatment to deaf people. I see no alternative to publicising this outrageous situation prior to the Assembly elections in May."

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