The day of a consultant medic shows the benefits of working in person

sir – As a retired consultant physician who spent 38 years working in hospital medicine, I found it disheartening to read that a significant percentage of consultants want to perform virtual ward rounds in order to avoid burnout (report, May 19).

There are so many benefits to the consultant being on the ward every day, including: team-building, diagnosis of serious incidental medical conditions that the junior doctor might not have noticed, help with unexpected emergencies arising on the ward, and – not least – direct interaction with the patients. Often one could bring hope and even humour into seemingly desperate situations by virtue of experience.

Before this new way of working is introduced, a thorough scientific evaluation needs to be conducted. Otherwise the public may feel that this is another profession that has become more interested in itself than the people it is there to serve.

Dr David Walters

Burton Bradstock, Dorset sir – I wonder where the term “work/ life balance” originated. My money would be on the United States, whose slogans are increasingly adopted without question in this country. If it is homegrown, I would guess either The Guardian or Cambridge University.

But since when was work not part of life? Surely the “balance”, within life, is between work and leisure.

The problem with admitting as much would be that those seeking to adjust the balance would implicitly be admitting that they expect to have more leisure time and do less work for the same money.

James Stythe

Pewsey, Wiltshire

sir – As a young planner dealing with people’s applications 50 years ago, I learnt the job working alongside, and being mentored on a daily basis by, more senior planners who sat in the same office as me.

In turn, when I was a senior planner, I mentored and trained junior staff. I also had immediate access to highways, conservation, design and legal advice from people working in the same building. I would simply meet the person with the document or plan I wished to discuss, and we could thrash out the best way forward.

Delays and errors were avoided, knowledge was gained and better planning outcomes were achieved.

As a manager I would let members of staff have odd days working from home if there was something they needed to do that required undisturbed concentration, but that was the exception, not the rule. There is a role for working from home, but it is limited and should be used sparingly.

R T Britnell

Canterbury, Kent

sir – I am retired and have been pottering in the garden. Recently a neighbour who is working from home appeared and took a business call while hanging out the washing. Multitasking at its finest.

Dave Alsop

Churchdown, Gloucestershire