NHS GPS are stuck in unsafe levels of risk

SIR – General practice is in freefall (report, February 6): there simply aren’t enough clinicians to do the job safely. Currently we are operating in a system where risk has become uncomfortable or perhaps unmanageable, yet we cannot down tools without adding to that risk.

Scrapping national insurance and creating an NHS tax may be part of the solution, but we have to face the fact that all public services are grossly under-funded and under-resourced. Will we also have an education tax, a police tax or a defence tax?

Maybe the time has come to start charging patients for appointments. Dr Antonia Moore

Rochester, Kent

SIR – Patrick Barbour (Letters, February 6) details the dramatic reduction in the number of complaints received by a hospital in Seattle after its decision to admit mistakes.

I have been a nurse for 50 years and, for the past 20, have been an expert witness, preparing reports detailing claimants’ care requirements following injuries sustained during medical treatments.

I have lost count of the number of claimants who have told me that they would not have pursued the litigation route had the hospital apologised and been honest about what went wrong.

Instead, mistakes are denied, NHS management closes ranks and the individuals who sustain serious damage feel there is no alternative but to seek the support of a lawyer. Maureen Hamilton

Redcar, North Yorkshire

SIR – It is not only GPS who are taking early retirement following the recent changes in pension rules (report, February 1) –I know many of my consultant colleagues have retired early for exactly the same reason.

As a result, the NHS is prematurely losing a cadre of highly experienced senior medical staff at a time when the service is coming under increasing pressure and would benefit from their retention. Dr JHF Smith

Sheffield, South Yorkshire