How are so many GPS seeing so few patients?

sir – J Meirion Thomas (Comment, September 25) discusses the problem of part-time GPS.

On the letter-head of my surgery are the names of nine GPS. A direct consultation is virtually impossible to obtain, yet it is generally understood that doctors should see their patients. Surely administration does not occupy most of the day. Letting a receptionist decide who should be seen is dangerous, and could lead to litigation.

As an ENT consultant I could not have practised without a consultation with each patient. In the distant past I was a locum in a single-handed practice with one receptionist and no appointment system. It was hard work but extremely rewarding.

Roy Miller FRCS

Glasgow sir – For over five weeks, two GPS (to whom I spoke over the telephone) were convinced that the discomfort I was experiencing in my right upper arm was the result of a muscular strain.

Eventually the pain became so great that I went to A&E and an X-ray confirmed that the bone in my right upper arm (humerus) was in fact broken.

Later I had to have a section of the bone removed as the break was the result of bone cancer. I am yet to find out whether the cancer could have spread further during the month-long delay. But I’m afraid my faith in telephone diagnoses has taken a bit of a hammering.

Brian Christley

Abergele, Conwy