Letter: Don't ring your GP

Sir: The suggestion that patients would no longer have direct access to their GP is quite frightening.

Access to a caring GP at the end of the telephone, who knew the patient well, made it possible for me to care for my increasingly frail and disabled husband at home to within two days of his death.

How many mothers with an obviously sick child would be able to call up sufficiently precise medical vocabulary to persuade a previously unknown nurse of the need for a home visit? If a mistake is made, the doctor is not called and the child is damaged, who will be legally responsible? If this is the kind of service to be provided, more people will struggle to take out private insurance.

LILY G W TURNER

St Albans, Hertfordshire