March letter writer says: 'GPs will have blood on their hands'

I wholeheartedly agree with those bemoaning about their GPs only taking telephone or video chat appointments.

There is only so much you can say over the phone, sometimes the emotion of not seeing a doctor in person can be missing, and they in turn may not get the full gravity of the issue, and still, quite a lot of people are not terribly keen on speaking in their phones, let alone on Zoom!

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has frequently urged our GPs to start seeing patients face-to-face, and in person again, but whilst they aren’t being forced back in to the old routine, allegedly, being paid around £100 per hour for some, where is the need or desire to have to occupy the same room, breathe the same air, or being able to ‘cut off’ the great unwashed public?

But, it isn’t just the doctors themselves, because whilst many receptionists and secretaries give all the help they possibly can, a few others are just using the situation of the pandemic to hone their own ‘little-Hitler’ skills to deem whether you are worthy of being seen, spoken to, or even considered, and some that don’t even pick up the telephone at all!

The Government say it will take 10 years to clear the NHS backlog, but many of the numbers that make up the backlog will be suffering from serious or life-threatening conditions and sadly will have passed away within a few short years.

Five weeks ago, months after Boris Johnson started demanding GPs see patients in person, I went to my surgery for a blood test, and was shocked to see a waiting area that, pre-pandemic, had around 25-30 chairs positioned for patients, only had ONE seat set out slap, bang, in the middle of the floor, and I was horrified.

Things MUST return to the old ways, or our local practices that refuse to see patients, one-to-one, will have bloodied, crimson stained hands, if they don’t have them already that is!

Ashley Smith

March