Telegraph 10 May

Elusive GPs

1

1. Dr Nikki Kanani, NHS England's medical director of primary care (Letters, May 7  3.3), says that "patients who need to see a doctor face to face should always be given this option".
2. That is emphatically not that case in my local surgery.  Moreover, the assertion that "everyone working in primary care remains committed to ensuring face to face appointments continue to be offered" is risible.
3. If these statements are correct, why is there so much clamour from patients to the contrary? I invite Dr Kanani publicly to reveal the formula that gets past the gatekeepers.

           Philip Barry Dover Kent

2

1. I am saddened by the complaints about the service offered by GPs. 
2. Throughout lockdown my doctor has been available to talk on the phone, and has taken immediate action to deal with my problems - 
3. for example, by arranging for me to have a scan, and X-ray and, ultimately, a steroid injection in my arthritic knee, with excellent results.
4. I could not be more grateful.  

          Jeanne Faber Sussex

3

1. It is clear that there is a vast disparity in the quality of service offered to patients by different doctors' surgeries. 
2. The problem is that most surgeries are virtual monopolies, with a trend towards the amalgamation of practices into larger centralised units.
3. What is required is the opposite: a proliferation of smaller practices where competition for patient numbers, the principal determinant of income, would ensure that the highest levels of 'customer" service were maintained.

           Steve Black  Nottingham