Surgeons, cancer specialists and mental health services are failing to see elderly patients as individuals and are too ready to make “snap judgments” on the basis of age, according to Paul Burstow, the care services minister. He told The Daily Telegraph that the health and social care systems will be forced to comply with new rules outlawing age discrimination, which are expected to come into force next year. Pensioners who believe they have been denied the treatment they need, or neglected on hospital wards in favour of younger patients, could even be entitled to take legal action against health trusts