Sir, Elizabeth Clarke (letter, Aug 5) fails to appreciate the “perfect storm” facing primary care. With the ageing population, demand for GP appointments is steadily rising, up 25 per cent in six years. At the same time medical defence fees are rocketing and we are still expected to carry out complex consultations often involving patients with multiple conditions in ten minutes; my working day is never less than 12 hours.
If general practice were so lucrative we would have lots of eager young doctors wanting to enter the profession, but there is a huge number of vacancies in GP training posts, and retiring GPs are not being replaced, resulting in practices closing.
There is a crisis in primary care and it is catastrophic that little is being done to tackle it, with the exception of Jeremy Hunt’s plan to harvest 5,000 GPs from the “magic GP tree”.
Dr Stewart McMenemin
Glasgow
Sir, I was dismayed to read Elizabeth Clarke’s suggestion that GPs’ earnings are so great that they need work only three days a week. If this is the case, why are a growing number of partnerships unfilled and why are some practices declaring themselves no longer viable? After 25 years in general practice I am seeing more patients, more often and for longer, while my pay remains the same as ten years ago. Were I younger I would certainly be considering other occupations or emigrating. As it is, I await retirement.
Advertisement
However, ill-informed comments reduce morale still further and I seriously believe that general practice, as we know it, will shortly cease to exist. Some may believe that this a good thing. If so, the best of luck to them in their old age.
Dr Roderick Shaw
Edinburgh
Sir, As a fourth-year medical student I was disappointed by the implication that doctors are shirking their duties to society. Even my brief experience of general practice has given me huge admiration for the way GPs cope with the stress of an emotionally draining job where one mistake, in ever-shortening consultations, could lead to someone’s death. It’s hardly surprising that some of them, both male and female, feel unable to work full-time. The vast majority of medical students are motivated by a commitment to do their best for patients, rather than personal gain, so it is disheartening to feel that there is no room for doctors to be human.
Katherine Read
Imperial College London
Sir, I am a young GP who is “part-time”. But though I see patients for just six morning or afternoon sessions, each clinical day lasts more than 12 hours, equating to 36 hours of work. There are then insurance reports and benefits assessment forms to complete, cluster meetings (these would be commissioning meetings in England) and mandatory educational meetings for my appraisal, which all takes an average of another ten hours a week. In what other profession is a 46-hour week considered part-time?
Advertisement
Dr Alec Jones
Llangollen, Denbighshire
Sir, Many part-time GPs, myself included, are women with young families. If we could not work part-time we would not work at all: what a great loss to the profession that would be. It is better to have a part-time GP than no GP at all.
Dr Annie Middleton
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Sir, I read with interest your article on the demise of RPI and its replacement by CPIH (“You can’t count on the Retail Prices Index, statistics chiefs warn”, Aug 3). The latter index, in the words of the UK Statistics Authority, is an “economic indicator of inflation”: it is based on national accounting principles and is suitable for technical uses such as the deflation of consumption expenditure in the national accounts. RPI, on the other hand, was an index designed and used with the explicit purpose of uprating household incomes and regulated prices — indeed as the main measure of inflation as experienced by households. Mark Carney, in his recent monetary policy committee speech, repeatedly emphasised the importance of household behaviour in managing monetary policy. What your article omitted to mention was that the Office for National Statistics, guided by the National Statistician, is planning to produce a new index (the “Household Costs Index”) which many of us hope will eventually replace RPI as the main measure of household inflation. This will have more relevance for ordinary households and will be complementary to CPIH.
John Astin
Member, Advisory Panel for Consumer Prices
Advertisement
VINCE CABLE ON BREXIT
Sir, Sir Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, says that older citizens have “comprehensively shafted the young” in relation to Brexit (“May dismisses £36bn Brexit divorce bill”, News, Aug 7). As a university lecturer I see the daily struggle that students have with debts of more than £27,000 accumulated over the course of their degree. The Lib Dems, having promised never to increase student loans, then did precisely that when in government with the Conservatives. It is Sir Vince and his party who “comprehensively shafted” the young.
Dr Linda Heath
Brighton Business School
Sir, As a 71-year-old Brexit voter I have become increasingly irritated by generalised descriptions of my attitude. The last straw is Sir Vince Cable insulting me by insinuating that I have “shafted the young”. When my 15-year-old granddaughter inquired why I voted Brexit my answer was that it was for her generation and that it was facts, not abstract issues, that decided me: examination of the appalling youth unemployment statistics within the EU told me everything I needed. I would have been content to remain within the EU if no referendum had been called; what made me vote Leave was the fear that a Remain vote would have caused an avalanche of regulations binding the UK irrevocably to a federal state doomed to fail.
Peter Watts
Exeter
VALUE OF SOFT POWER
Sir, It was good to see that the views of Phillip Blond, of ResPublica, chime with your leader (Aug 5) in defence of the British Council and soft power. Soft power is indeed multi-faceted and arguably incalculable. One value, akin to loyalty, that is rarely computed is the irretrievable loss of long-term goodwill once it emerges that what was represented over many decades as an enduring relationship can be turned off like a tap. Sadly, it devalues much work, undertaken in the best of good faith, that went before.
Advertisement
Alan Hallsworth
President, British Association for Canadian Studies
CHASING RAINBOWS
Sir, Would Libby Purves (“National Trust chases rainbows to its cost”, Aug 7) have felt the same way about colour co-ordinated theming if volunteers had been asked but refused to wear purple, white and green: the colour scheme, devised in 1908 by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, as fashion branding for suffragettes? The rainbow flag is no different. The badges merely had the word “Pride” on them not “Support Gay Rights”.
The underlying issue is the lack of integration in such institutions of historically under-represented minorities outside special anniversaries, Pride events or events such as Black History Month.
Guy Burch
Curator, Model Men, Menier Gallery
HEN HARRIERS AND GROUSE SHOOTING
Sir, Sir Ian Botham is selective in his use of statistics in his Thunderer (“RSPB should praise grouse moors and protect its reserves”, Aug 7). In Wales, where there is no driven grouse shooting and about 5,000 sq km of suitable habitat, the population of hen harriers has fallen from 57 to 35 pairs since 2010. During that same period within England’s estimated 6,600 sq km of suitable habitat, the population of hen harriers has fallen from 12 to only three pairs.
Advertisement
Natural England, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Defra and numerous independent reports have concluded that the most significant reason for the low and falling number of pairs in England has been illegal persecution on or near shooting estates. This is hardly an endorsement for the ecological benefit of driven grouse shooting.
David Hunter
Oulton, W Yorks
PASSION FOR MUSIC
Sir, I beg to differ with Ian Bradley, who claims in his Credo (“Jesus the rock star is more popular than the Beatles”, Register, Aug 5) that “Jesus Christ Superstar follows the biblical Passion narratives pretty faithfully”. The big omission is the Resurrection: the culmination of the Passion for all four Gospel-writers and mentioned consistently by Paul and other apostles later in the New Testament. Surely, without the Resurrection, Jesus Christ Superstar is only part of the story and cannot be put on a par with J S Bach.
Howard Green
Romsey, Hants
MUNROS BAGGED
Sir, As we now live longer and frequently retire earlier may I recommend climbing the 282 mountains over 3,000ft as the ideal activity for fitness (“Hillwalking bags £1bn for economy”, Aug 4). They are scattered from Aviemore to Skye and vary from easy walking to a little rock climbing. Each is an achievement in itself and to “bag” all is a fitting entry in one’s obituary.
J M Carder
Anstruther, Fife
HORSES FOR COURSES
Sir, Ulrich Raulff (Saturday Review, Aug 5) describes the Parthenon frieze by Phidias as “probably the most inspiring horse race in art history.” It is indeed inspiring. But it is not a horse race. The sculpture depicts riders on horseback taking part in the Panathenaic procession, an annual event in ancient Athens to celebrate the birthday of Athena.
Oliver Murphy
Bray, Co Wicklow
YOU BE THE JUDGE
Sir, Judge Stephen Pacey recalls a colleague (letters, Aug 4 and 5) who was reluctant to admit to his profession when questioned, and would describe himself as a scrap metal dealer. On holiday, when asked the same question, my practice is to ask my interlocutors to guess. “Judge” is their invariable answer.
Am I in the wrong profession?
Canon Eric Woods
Sherborne Abbey, Dorset
NO MEAN FEET
Sir, Regarding Roger Taylor’s letter (Aug 7) about smelly feet at the theatre, I too have been subjected to such behaviour.
While waiting some years ago for Hairspray to start at a theatre on Broadway, I could smell feet. I tracked the pong down to a girl farther along the row. I told her that I could smell her feet and politely asked her to put her shoes on. This she did. Sorted.
Rosemary Baillie
Fenwick, Ayrshire
BOX OF TRICKS
Sir, Perhaps, now that wine in a box is to go upmarket (“Think inside the box, wine snobs urged”, Aug 7), someone will invent a spout that will pour straight into the glass rather than squirting sideways.
Eric Johns
Swanage, Dorset
Letters to the Editor should be sent to letters@thetimes.co.uk