Letter: NHS changes

Sir: I am sure that Stephen Alexander (letter, 30 April) is right to be sceptical about the new NHS changes.

However, his accounting may be inaccurate. The cost of telephone triage by a nurse is more than 10 times the cost of a call to a GP co-op. A nurse can deal with only four calls per hour, whereas a GP can cope with 20.

We must be careful that NHS Direct is funded separately and does not syphon money from existing GP services.

Dr JANET MENAGE

Bulkington, Warwickshire