Virtual GPS
SIR – I have spent almost 30 years in general practice with the threat of litigation if a patient came to harm after I had refused to see them personally or had relied on a telephone diagnosis, or indeed after I had seen them but not carried out an appropriate physical examination.
I find it extraordinary to read in the medical literature that there are now educational aids as to how to “minimise” missing important signs and symptoms in virtual consultations.
Surely this is an admission by the medical profession that virtual consultations are not as safe as face-to-face consultations, despite their protestations otherwise.
Dr MJ Banham
Bridport, Dorset
SIR – Inexperienced receptionists at GP surgeries are deciding which patients get an urgent call back. Their actions can have serious consequences. It should be enough to tell them you are in pain. Yet if you are unwilling to go into detail, you have to resort to A&E.
Receptionists do not have the qualifications to decide who needs a same-day call back and who can wait for several weeks.
Camilla Coats-carr
Teddington, Middlesex
SIR – I am a nurse who re-registered at the start of the pandemic.
A GP from my practice rang me to arrange both my Covid injections. Yet this is a basic clerical task that does not demand the expertise of a GP.
I don’t think I’m alone among nurses and doctors who re-registered in wondering why I haven’t been called on to help. Are there not more important roles for GPS than clerical ones?
Annie Urwin
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
SIR – My excellent GP surgery had shown no information on its website regarding Covid boosters and flu vaccination, until a note appeared recently effectively saying, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”, about both. I have heard nothing.
However, I recently received an NHS email inviting me to book a Covid booster for the following morning at a convenient time and location. Trying to find a flu jab was more difficult as I had to contact many individual pharmacies, some doing occasional walk-ins, some by booking.
Surely we could help overstretched GPS by also moving responsibility for flu vaccinations to the centralised NHS model of participating pharmacies. Maryanne Roach
Amersham, Buckinghamshire