No they're not...say the British public.

judy, Liverpool, england

I've just picked up my regular repeat prescription and attached to it is an amatuerish photocopied piece of paper with a box ticked saying that my medication has been reviewed and that I should continue as before. What a joke! How much did my GP get paid for this? How can professional responsibility be satisfied when I wasn't even spoken to? For all my GP knows this medication could be causing side effects left right and centre. Now GPs object to providing services at times to suit their patients. My GP should only be paid when I visit him or he visits me (some form of voucher system) and when I have confirmed that this professional encounter was to my satisfaction. We can't go on letting GPs drain money from the NHS for this meaningless, unprofessional form filling. It says a lot about the current state of medical professionalism that GPs are greedy enough to stoop so low that they will forgo their professional standards in this way.

Graham, Oxford, UK

kenneth clark is right doctors are only interested in keeping their hands on their wallets

in my area despite the designated hours ie 8 am to 6.30pmgp surgeries are open from 8.30am with an our of the surgery closed for lunch with the surgery and access closed form 5 pm

Chris Quartly, Harpenden,

I am amazed at the whingeing of public services proffessionals to maintain records to enable proper audit of the Quality Assurance of the service provided by them. The Government of the day indulges in appeasing the various groups by compromising the intrests of the users i.e patients. We regularly hear horror stories where things have gone horribly wrong and nobody in the service has a clue what is going on. The Govt. ordeers an expensive enquiry to find out what happened and promise to learn lessons. So it goes on. In my view the middle management in the public services is either incompetent and therefore reluctant to keep proper records or is too idle to bother. In todays electronic systems keeping records should be a piece of cake. However We have politicians who are bunch of windbags and are willing to spend the tax payers hard eaned cash without standing upto the public services pofessionals to deliver the value.

Gidwani, Maidenhead, Berkshire

Typical response from a well paid public servant happy to line their pockets at the taxpayers expense. But as soon as it comes to providing a service that would be useful to the public they balk.

Why don't we pay them an hourly rate so that if they don't want to work the weekend or evening shifts then the money can be apportioned to other practitioners that are willing to work these shifts.

Jim, Boston, MA

They would say that, wouldn't they? GPs are not unlike any other government employee with vested interests to keep the status quo.

Doris, London,

86% of people in a very expensive survey commisioned by DOH agreed that GP hours were satisfactory and so for 14% the DOH is now aiming to duplicate evening and Saturday cover everywhere, a service which is already available through Walk In Centres and out of hours services.Would it not be more logical to get more detail from the 14%? It is likely that this applies to particular areas and effort and money could be concentrated there, rather than over the whole country. Incidently what does an expert tertiary surgeon know about how to organise GPs? It's like asking a plumber to sort out your electrics! By the way I don't get anywhere near £100,000 a year so please stop taunting me with an untruth.

Peter Burgess, York, UK

Gps have the right to be angry because of the constant change to their work pattern and daily bashing when they should be thanked for their hard work. For the hard work and years to become GPS, their pay is not excessive.
I also Just read your article about the "Nurse of the year quitting because of work pressure due to constant reform and no job security. Frontline staff's moral is really down in the NHS. Doctors, junior doctors, nurses, physiotherapists.. etc, are finding it harder and harder to cope and no one seems to care!
Lord Darzi says "In another letter published today by your paper) that he wants a "fairer" NHS. Well, Lord Darzi, "generousity begins at home!" you can't be fair to patients if you are not fair to the staff! Please listen to the NHS frontline staff and work hard to improve this all time low morale if only for the sake of NHS patients who will definately suffer if morale amongst staff continues to be that low.

Happy staff = better care = healthier nation

Sam, London, UK