Remote consultations allow more patients to have contact with a GP

sir – As a recently retired GP, I note with interest the report (August 30) on GP income of £100 per hour (gross, before expenses), as well as that on Pimlico Plumbers’ rates starting at £120 per hour, with a realistic takehome of £150,000 per year (August 30). Very few GPS earn that sort of money. As a society we must learn to value our NHS professionals.

Working at home means frequent and fast consultations by phone or video, always aware of the consequences of a wrong decision and always able to ask the patient to attend a face-to-face where indicated. I used to call in about 40 per cent of the people whom I consulted online or by phone. By remote consultation, I was able to talk to far more patients than a face-to-face system alone would allow.

In an ideal world, we would have many more GPS and a system funded to allow walk-in open surgeries with no barriers whatever. Inspection of the statistics for full-time equivalent GPS in the last 10 years, and appreciation of the much more complex job done now in general practice, will explain access difficulties. Most GPS want to be able to see and examine their patients. It is the Government’s job to create an environment that makes this possible.

Dr Peter Swinyard

Past chairman, The Family Doctor Association

Swindon, Wiltshire

sir – It is a national scandal that only 11 per cent of new medical graduates intend to work full time, when it costs over £1 million to produce each one of them (Letters, August 30).

It would be interesting to carry out a similar survey among foreign medical graduates to compare their outlook on doctoring. Most of the latter (and their families) would have spent a considerable amount of time and money and made sacrifices to achieve their goal. It may well be that it is only our home graduates who have the luxury of treating medicine as a job and not a full-time vocation.

Prasad Palimar FRCS

Warrington, Cheshire

sir – Medicine is, or should be, a vocation. My grammar school headmistress coached me in school hours in Latin as I wanted to go to Oxbridge to study medicine and Latin was a requirement at that time.

She asked me why I wanted to be a doctor and my reply surprised her. I told her I wanted to live to work and not just work to live.

I became a medical student in my home city. I had three siblings and my parents explained that they could not afford the cost of me living away from home. I worked evenings and weekends to help family finances. After qualifying I worked full time for 40 years and had three children, one of whom is a GP, another a midwife.

The selection criteria for medical students should not simply be based on A-level grades. For some, the motivation is mainly money. Doctors require intelligence and knowledge to arrive at an accurate diagnosis, but also a need to care.

Dr Rhoda Pippen

Cardiff