As a GP I’m afraid I find the recent letter ‘When will GPs and pharmacists come out of hiding?’ highly ignorant and insulting. GPs work incredible hard, working extremely long hours and are working harder than ever before.

I have been a partner for 15 years and year on year demand and workload goes up. Demand for appointments is far higher than ever before and we are dealing with more appointments than ever before. On reviewing current statistics it is a fact that GPs are dealing with 3-5 million more appointments each month compared to two years ago. This is not always Covid-related - demand for appointments has just rocketed - growing elderly population, more health-screening identifying disease, more primary prevention, more demand from patients to consult regarding short-lived symptoms etc etc.

We certainly HAVE been seeing patients throughout the pandemic and have NEVER shut our doors.

Yes everyone who needs an appointment will have a telephone appointment first and if the doctor feels that patient needs to be seen then a face-face appointment will be booked. Please note this also excludes the work carried out under the Covid-19 vaccination programme, which has seen GP-led teams deliver the vast majority of more than 47m doses UK-wide.

So yes, general practice is under intense pressure, with soaring demand leaving an understaffed profession working long hours and stretched to breaking point.

It is heart-breaking and completely demoralising to hear accusations that general practice is not open and that patients are not being seen. What’s more it is extremely damaging at a time when morale is already reaching rock bottom and many GPs and others in the practice workforce are reaching breaking point.

Please clarify the facts before writing such insulting letters.

Dr Joanne Colvin