THERE are rules in all walks of life. Sometimes they are there to be broken.

In our view that is certainly what should happen in the case of 86-year-old retired vicar Gunter Helft.

The pensioner has been forced to move with his wife to sheltered accommodation in a different part of Worcester because of his chronic health problems.

But the rules operated by the GP practice he has attended for 23 years say he must move to a different surgery closer to his new home. Mr Helft has appealed but has effectively been told that rules are rules.

Mr Helft does not want to move to a new GP. He says at his age the fact he is well known at the Elbury Moor Medical Centre in Fairfield Close is important.

We agree. It might well be easier all round for Mr Helft to be on the list of a GP practice closer to his new home. But sometimes the non-medical needs of a patient should come before red tape.

He has only moved from Tolladine to St John’s, after all.

We hope the partners at the Elbury Moor centre think again about their decision. We are not asking for the rules to be broken or for a precedent to be set.

But we do think an exception should be made for Mr Helft. The rules should be bent. A loophole should be found.

Mr Helft will have given plenty to Worcester during his career as a head teacher and a vicar. Is it too much to ask for him to be granted this one wish in return?