SUE RYDER, of New Road, Loddiswell, writes:

Why oh why have we got this silly system at Norton Brook Health Centre of ringing to get an appointment with a doctor, only to be told that the doctor will ring you later to discuss whether you need to be seen or whether it can be dealt with over the phone.

For the majority of patients, if they ring for an appointment, that is exactly what they want.

Who can wait by the phone, especially if you go to work?

This system was put in place because of those who never turned up or failed to cancel, so wasting valuable doctors’ time. The answer to that is simple – charge them, like they do at the dentists or chiropodists.

Please let us go back to the system of ringing between 8am and 9am and be given an appointment. Health centres, I believe, are there to serve patients, not management.

This current system does not work.

No wonder A&E departments are bursting at the seams. Patients need to be seen by a doctor, not sat waiting to see if they can.