YP Letters: Worrying purge of GPs' patient lists

Dr Richard Vautrey, BMA GP Committee Deputy Chair.
Is it right that the Government purges patient lists?Is it right that the Government purges patient lists?
Is it right that the Government purges patient lists?

NHS England plans to use a private company to remove patients who have not used their local GP practice in the last five years, if they don’t reply to two letters, are yet another example of how the Government’s drive to save money could have a detrimental impact on patient care and safety.

Every person in Yorkshire and across the UK has a fundamental right to be registered with a local GP and they shouldn’t be punished simply for being too well and not needing to see a GP recently.

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None of us know when we will become ill and need to see a GP urgently. We all therefore need to have the certainty of being registered with a local practice.

Worryingly, the biggest impact could be on the most vulnerable patients, who may not understand the importance of responding to letters from NHS managers.

Practices themselves have had serious problems with the management of back-office services since NHS England gave the task to a private company. GPs fear patients could be the next to suffer.

We are currently facing an unprecedented crisis in general practice with rising levels of workload, a fall in resources and greater staff shortages.

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Surely it is clear that the solution lies not in the continual chipping away of our core services but in greater investment?

From: Jim Beck, Lindrick Grove, Tickhill

The NHS should now be removed from the political arena once and for all.

It is one of Europe’s very largest undertakings, with tens of thousands of workers, all dedicated to the service but containing many diverse groups, each having its own legitimate but competing priorities.

I can think of no politician in any party with the qualities to head such a vital and complicated organisation.

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The job of government should be simply to provide the funds, and if overseas aid can be ring-fenced at 0.7 per cent of GDP, then surely the NHS can be financed in the same way, reviewed annually and by cross-party agreement.

This would eliminate political infighting and complaints about this or that aspect of the NHS being “under-funded”.

The Secretary of State should be fighting the Treasury and not the BMA; there should be a pre-determined and inviolate budget with a business-like structure imposed by the man or woman in overall charge, and with competing priorities determined on the basis of hard evidence and an impartial examination of likely outcomes.

Business is not a dirty word and entrepreneurial (not political) skills are urgently needed.

Kashmir bloodshed

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From: Amjad Bashir, Conservative MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Events in Nice, Turkey and the United States, tragic and disturbing as they are, have only served to push what has been happening simultaneously in Jammu Kashmir even further down the international news agenda.

The authorities there seized newspapers and shut down cable television last weekend, following protests over the killing of a separatist commander by security forces.

Some 36 people have been killed and more than 3,000 wounded in recent days – most of those victims of police gunfire. A curfew has been imposed and mobile phone signals blocked.

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It is by far the worst outbreak of violence and human rights abuse that even this troubled state has seen in many years.

If this were happening in a part of the world that was more in the public eye, worldwide outrage would be loud and powerful.

I hope Boris Johnson will ensure it gets a higher priority among his team as he sets out his new regime at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Britain should, after all, feel a special sense of duty here.

As always, cool heads, calm tempers and effective dialogue are what is needed to create progress.

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However, it appears both sides may need some outside help in letting those conditions come to the fore.

Golf ruined by Sky sale

From: Christine McDade, Morton on Swale.

How I agree with R Williams (The Yorkshire Post, July 20), regarding the greed of golf’s governing body in selling the viewing rights to the Open Championship to Sky.

In previous years I have watched every minute of the coverage on the BBC.

This year I found it difficult to watch the highlights on BBC2 in the evenings knowing, from news programmes, the state of play beforehand.

The final was ruined by knowing that Henrik Stenson had won beforehand. The excitement and pleasure of watching live sports is not knowing the outcome.