With no alternative, NHS patients are stuck waiting weeks to see a GP

sir – “You’ll see your GP within two weeks” (report, September 22) – what a dismally pathetic aim.

Bill Winward

Calne, Wiltshire

sir – As a veterinarian, if the owners of my patients were told they would have to wait two weeks or more to see me they would go elsewhere for treatment – because they can.

Perhaps it is time to privatise the NHS.

Janet Winter

Morland, Cumbria

sir – I am a retired GP and worked in the NHS from 1966 until 2004. The basic problem is that the service is entirely free at the point of use.

Human nature causes the rest of its demand problems, which is why the NHS model hasn’t been copied anywhere in the world.

Dr Peter Sander

Hythe, Kent

sir – My own experience of the NHS has been largely excellent. However, the difficulty in accessing a GP means that Dr Google is already the first consultation many people turn to for medical advice.

Doctors themselves are increasingly using artificial intelligence to diagnose more rapidly and more effectively than human beings.

The Government should prepare now for the anticipated shortage of GPS by developing AI triage as a front-line service. It has the potential to be vastly more cost-effective and at least as accurate as a tired locum with a 10-minute deadline.

John Williams

Bradwell-on-sea, Essex

sir – In recent years my wife has had private health treatment for cancer and now for a neurological problem. I have had NHS care for fractures. All the care and treatments were excellent.

Being over 65 it’s our choice how we spend our savings and when we use private healthcare we know that everyone who can’t afford to pay moves faster to the front of the NHS queue.

When will we have politicians brave enough to incentivise us and fully integrate private and NHS healthcare?

Never, because they are deluded in thinking we can create a health service efficient for everyone in a low-tax society.

Christopher Allen

Swettenham, Cheshire

sir – My 100-year-old mother-in-law is doubly incontinent and has for some time had the necessary NHS supplies prescribed and delivered.

When she had to move to a care home in a different area, the supply stopped. The new health authority insisted that she must be reassessed, for which there has so far been a wait of more than four months.

The obvious duplication is totally lost on the NHS, let alone the cruelty and embarrassment caused. There is a rule, we were told. David Askew Woking, Surrey