YP Letters: Changing role of GPs over the years

I WAS amazed to read in Malcolm Smith’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, January 17) that his GP does not “do stitches”.

I had my two children in a semi-rural area almost 40 years ago and was attended at night by my family doctor who put stitches in, on each occasion. While he was in my cottage, his wife was taking any messages.

A few years later he opened a big abscess on my son’s neck and put a drain in to it and a few weeks later put a broken bone back in place.

My doctor, his partner or deputy were available 24 hours each day, seven days a week. I am told that family doctors were looking after twice as many patients, on average, as they do today, but he would always fit in an emergency consultation.

Things are different today in our suburban area.

Surely “General Practitioner” is a misnomer and the highly-praised dedicated professional status of the family doctor is a thing of the past. But perhaps doctors are, in a sense, victims of changes in medicine, changes in patients’ expectations and the recourse to legal action.

Ticket to confusion

From: Michael Green, Baghill Green, Tingley, Wakefield.

REGARDING wheelchairs on buses, it was always going to be a difficult call if the rights of the disabled and the able-bodied were ever to come into conflict.

I’ve looked at the reports (The Yorkshire Post, January 19) of the recent Supreme Court judgement, and am trying to make sense of it.

The Supreme Court says that it is not enough for the driver just to ask the buggy-owner to move. The driver must, if necessary, issue an order. But, if the order isn’t obeyed, he must not throw buggy and owner off the bus.

Instead, he should refuse to drive on, until the other passengers get so fed up with the delay that they take it on themselves to hound the buggy-owner off the bus. But he shouldn’t delay so long as to make any of the passengers late!

The justices of the Supreme Court are supposed to be the best legal brains in the land, but all they seem able to do is try to avoid offending anybody.

Heaven help us all – and especially the poor bus drivers who are the ones who will have to make sense of this nonsense.

Health claim up in smoke

From: Robert Goodwill, Scarborough and Whitby MP.

DURING a recent BBC Look 
North report from the anti-fracking site near Kirby Misperton, we saw protesters claiming that the fracking operation could cause damage to human health.

This claim is strongly contested by independent experts.

I saw one of the protesters puffing on a roll-up cigarette.

Claims that smoking 
cigarettes can be damaging to health are widely accepted 
and, indeed, 50 per cent of people who smoke are likely to die from smoking-related illnesses.

You couldn’t really make it up, could you?

Views with authority

From: Miss SI Forbes, Market Weighton.

I REFER to the recent letter from the Rev Dr Peter Mullen in response to a column by Leeds imam Qari Asim.

The Rev Mullen states that Mr Asim’s article, entitled “We must all unite against intolerance”, stands in need of considerable correction.

He proceeds to do so. His conclusion is the question “are we really all going to die of political correctness?”

The answer would appear to be ‘yes’, unless we ‘get our act together’ as quickly as possible.

Mr Mullen speaks with authority, having been, at one time, Rector of St Michael’s, Cornhill, and of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London.

He was also chaplain to six livery companies and the author of a number of books, mostly on the subject of English Christianity (may I suggest his book entitled A Partial Vision, subtitled “English Christianity and the great betrayal”).

I think he may be fairly described as high Anglican and refreshingly outspoken.

Calling tune on spending

From: Keith Chapman, Custance Walk, York.

WHEN watching Songs of Praise, we all see someone shining a light – like a 90-year-old lady collecting in a bee outfit for Age UK in a town and also showing support for the homeless.

When we all get our next correspondence on where money should be spent in our next Budget, it should be plain enough to see housing and care a priority.

Rejection of democracy

From: Don Ramsden, Pildacre Hill, Dewsbury.

THE demonstrations around 
the world against new US President Donald Trump are to me just another sign of the decline of our civilisation – they are rejecting democracy, a form of government for the people by the will of the majority of the people.

Brid’s best of the B&Bs

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington.

GREAT news for Bridlington that the South Lodge Guest House in the town is the third best B&B in the world, according to the Travellers’ Choice awards carried out by the travel review website TripAdvisor.