REGARDING the column by Prof Mike Holmes on the state of general practice I’d like to make a few suggestions myself as to how it should never be the same again. 

Many GP practices have indeed worked well through the pandemic, and they know who they are, but many have not. 

In a serious medical emergency, the fact that some doctors decided to put themselves first and stop seeing patients is nothing short of a scandal. Supermarkets were expected to change their operations to make them Covid safe, yet some medical professionals claimed they couldn’t. 

For such negligence, those who stopped working when they were most needed should be sacked immediately and their gold-plated pensions confiscated by the state to train new, properly dedicated doctors.
Another positive step would be to pay them per appointment they actually do, rather than giving them a lump sum for every name on the books and allowed to spend it how they wish. 

Such changes should be brought in as an amendment to the Coronavirus act, that way no court can even hear a case trying to block progress. 
In fact why not also add mandatory 10-year prison sentences for anybody caught deliberately blocking the road network too. 

One act of tyranny, properly used, can solve many problems. 
Dr Scott Marmion, 
Woodthorpe, 
York