AMID concern that East Lancashire is on the verge of serious shortages of family doctors, despite government schemes to attract new recruits with £10,000 'golden hello' payments, is not the answer to the predicament obvious?

We already have a situation where getting an appointment to see a specified GP can at times lead to a fortnight's wait - by which time, patients may be either dead or have got better by themselves.

But if family doctors in East Lancashire are so over-burdened, to ease the strain on themselves and the genuinely-sick, need we not just revert to the days before the coddling of the NHS cluttered up their waiting rooms and visiting rounds - by allowing them to charge for consultations?

A nominal fee, refundable a few weeks later in every case approved as pukka by the doctor, would remove the weary, hypochondriacs and lead-swingers from the surgeries and give the proper poorly swifter access to

their GPs.