No NHS patient should still be struggling to see a GP face to face

SIR – Dr Paul Atkinson, of the Royal College of GPS, is deluding himself if he believes that the “imbalance” between in-person and remote appointments during the pandemic has now “gone” (report, November 16).

In this part of the country, across many surgeries, obtaining an appointment other than on the phone remains almost impossible. Indeed, if the situation is so urgent it requires an appointment in person, the advice is usually to go to the overstretched A&E. Andrew Robinson

Sheffield, South Yorkshire

SIR – I agree with Dr William T Easson (Letters, November 16), who argues that doctors should have more control over the running of hospitals.

In the 1950s Barts Hospital was run efficiently by a committee of mainly medical staff, the secretary and, I believe, the almoner.

Unless the NHS undergoes a complete change it will become the laughing stock of the world. When my daughter, an American citizen, recently visited England, she sprained her ankle badly and went to a walk-in clinic to make sure it was not fractured. After a long wait and consultation she tried to pay, but her offer was declined. No wonder people from abroad are making use of our medical services.

My late husband, a GP, was on 24-hour duty most days, with one half-day off a week and every third weekend. He knew his patients and their families. How times have changed. We need to pay GPS for the patients actually seen, rather than for the number on their list. They might then be willing to meet us in person instead of taking a phone call in three weeks’ time.

Ann Burrows

Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire

SIR – You report (November 15) remarks by an NHS spokesperson to the effect that the service is on the road to recovery because it has virtually eliminated two-year waits for treatment. Can this really be a mark of anything other than a totally failed system? Yet our leaders persist in calling it the best in the world. Mark Calvin

Tretower, Brecknockshire

SIR – I agree with Dr Adrian Boyle, the new president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine: older patients are “being harmed by being in hospital”(report, November 14). But bed-blocking is not solely due to a lack of social care support.

The recent experience of my mother in an older persons’ orthopaedic ward in the west of England suggests that therapists should have greater input in hospital. Mum was in hospital for five months, three of which were spent waiting for a rehab place. During this time there was minimal input from therapists once the referral was made, so she has become unnecessarily disabled. Hospitals should look to themselves, not just social care settings.

Dr Alison Blake

Ringwood, Hampshire