Telegraph letters 18 May

People calling their GP now have difficulty getting as far as the waiting room. Empty surgeries

1

1. SIR - I would really appreciate your newspaper continuing a campaign for face-to-face consultations with our doctors.
2. My husband and I are in our 80s and it is really quite frightening when you are feeling unwell and you can't get through to anyone in the surgery.
3. We have been 30-something in the queue when we have rung at precisely 8 am, when the lines open. Then, when you do get through, there are no appointments left.
4. We are supposed to have a named doctor, as we are over 75, but I have never met my doctor to my knowledge. We don't feel anyone at the surgery is really caring for us.

Gill Allen​​​
Wokingham, Berkshire

2

1. SIR - J Meirion Thomas (Comment, May 15) is right to suggest that general practice is broken, even when functioning outside Covid restrictions.
2. When, for example, did a three-week wait to see a GP become the norm? And when did it become necessary to return a week later for any required blood tests? And why should one then wait expectantly for a result that is never transmitted to the patient because the doctor has marked it as needing "No Further Action"?
3.  When I worked in Eastern Europe, more than 20 years ago, polyclinics were well established as one-stop shops for patient needs. Following a GP consultation all necessary investigations, including X-rays, were carried out without delay.
4. In comparison, British general practice seems archaic.

 Dr A C E Stacey MRCGP
 Rustington, West Sussex

3

1. SIR - J Meirion Thomas's call for general practice to return to face-to-face appointments by default is not consistent with his recognition of the workforce crisis, brought about by a decade and a half of systematic disinvestment.
   
2. 
   
3. We were instructed by NHS England to move our default access channel to telephone and video consultations at the start of the pandemic, to control and prevent infection. However, this system of "total triage" can have an important role in ensuring that patients receive the most appropriate care at the most appropriate time.
4. 
   
5. Last week, I took a telephone call from a lady who was concerned that a skin blemish might be cancerous. An hour later she was sitting in front of me, and an hour after that she received a phone call from the local hospital in response to my urgent referral for her skin cancer.
6. 
   
7. Previously, when every consultation took place face-to-face, with waits of up to four weeks, this response would have been impossible. Meanwhile, minor ailments and queries are frequently dealt with, wholly appropriately, by telephone or email, in each case saving a face-to-face appointment for a patient who really needs it.
8. 
   
9. Currently, the use of telephone and online triage is the only tool we have that can direct increasingly scarce resources to those who require them - and until the Government produces the missing 5,889 doctors it says we need, we have to keep using it.

Dr Nicholas Jackson
Selby, North Yorkshire

4

1. SIR - I read with horror the recent letters and reports about the trouble that many people have had getting a phone or face-to-face appointment with their doctor.
2. However, I can say with all honesty that my surgery, Haverthwaite, has been brilliant. The office staff, pharmacists and doctors are all friendly, efficient and empathetic.
3. Please don't class all surgeries as being unhelpful. Haverthwaite can't be the only excellent one in the country.

Valerie Beacock
Ulverston, Cumbria

5

SIR - Oh dear - is the NHS now in danger of being overwhelmed by non-Covid patients?

David Golding
Upper Minety, Wiltshire

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