Are remote GP appointments the answer?

HAVING read the views of Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, on remote appointments (Mail), we wonder if the Government should consider adopting the French system, whereby GPs charge a fee that is paid directly to them by the patient at the time of consultation. The cost to the patient is partially reimbursed through their private health insurance. Maybe that is why GPs in France, where we lived until recently, continued to see patients face-toface throughout the pandemic.

A root-and-branch reform of the NHS is long overdue. After 74 years, any service needs updating.

RAY and DIANA PEMBLE, Southampton.

I WASN’T surprised to read Professor Marshall’s confirmation that GPs don’t want to return to pre-pandemic face-to-face appointments. It’s just another step in the deterioration of the health service that will particularly affect the elderly and vulnerable. Furthermore, mental health issues may be diagnosed in a face-to-face consultation, as well as physical ailments. These can be missed with telephone or remote appointments. If doctors insist on going down this road, they should be paid only for face-to-face appointments. That would mean forfeiting 35 per cent of their salary. I suspect a rapid U-turn would follow.

SIAN DAVIES, Cardiff.

WALKING to my newsagent to collect my Daily Mail every morning, I pass our medical centre, which houses two GP practices and a clinic. The staff car park is almost empty on Fridays. Long weekend for some?

STEPHEN SHERRINGTON, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Gtr Manchester.