Modernising GPS

SIR – Dr Murray Ellender (Letters, December 13) refers to the increase in diagnoses online. I can attest to the value of these.

Rather than endure a lengthy wait to see my hard-pressed local GP, I arranged a telephone consultation with a private GP via his mobile app.

Following the consultation, I printed the GP’S written advice and immediately took it to my nearest A&E. I underwent urgent surgery within 24 hours of my arrival. Barry Sprules

Pulborough, West Sussex

SIR – It is a disgrace that someone suffering from shingles (Letters, December 14) cannot get a GP appointment before January.

The acute symptoms will probably have cleared up by then. However, the pain and long-term nerve damage – preventable by prompt treatment – may not. Adrian Waller

Woodsetts, South Yorkshire

SIR – I disagree with Philip Johnston’s suggestion that we should get rid of GPS (Comment, December 13), but something radical must be done if the NHS is to be rescued.

GPS’ leaders must accept much of the blame for the state of primary care: they forced through contracts which gave GPS more pay while removing them from out-of-hours care.

This dumped an unmanageable burden on the rest of the NHS, especially hospitals, and deprived GPS of something that makes medicine worth doing: the satisfaction of following up your own patients. No wonder so many GP posts are vacant. Gareth Williams

Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Bristol Berkeley, Gloucestershire