More money for GPS won’t salvage patient care

SIR – I share the concern of Professor Helen Stokes-lampard, the chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, that patients will desert the NHS because it takes too long to see their GP (report, August 9).

However, I am not convinced that her demand for an extra £2.5 billion for primary care will solve the problem – especially if the money is used to pay yet more GPS six-figure salaries to work three or four days a week. Professor Gareth Williams

Berkeley, Gloucestershire

SIR – I find it incredible that Professor Stokes-lampard should advocate fasttracking foreign doctors to Britain, rather than asking why the NHS is “haemorrhaging” existing staff.

General practice, in its present form, does not appeal to many young doctors. The volume of people seeking appointments and the sheer weight of paperwork is untenable.

We should also question the ethics of depriving foreign countries of their medical personnel. A radical overhaul of the system is long overdue. Dr Henry Clamp

Rugeley, Staffordshire

SIR – I am a physically fit 70-yearold orthopaedic surgeon, soon to retire from a busy private practice. If possible, I would like to keep active by offering my services on a voluntary basis to the NHS, where I worked happily as a consultant for many years.

Approaches have duly been made to my local NHS trust and to my GP health centre, but no one has shown any interest in taking me on. Is there no place in the NHS for people like me? Fergus Paterson FRCS

Weybridge, Surrey