Contacting GP surgeries over Christmas

Editor—A more plausible interpretation of the data presented by Rouse is that his researcher did not allow the telephone to ring for sufficient time to allow a member of the practice staff to answer it. The table shows that the researcher made around 270 telephone calls to the 91 practices in the three days before Christmas. This equates to an average of one call every 4 minutes. In reality, the researcher must have allowed the telephone to ring for much less time than this. With regard to his exhortation to the health secretary to make me and my colleagues keep our doors open over Christmas, I would like to make Rouse an offer: I am willing to spend Christmas Day sitting at my desk in surgery if he will sit at his desk in his academic office and Frank Dobson at his desk in Westminster. Otherwise, unless I happen to be on call, I shall be spending Christmas Day with my family enjoying a break from the burgeoning public expectations being fuelled by politicians and epidemiologists in promoting a 24 hour a day “convenience store” mentality towards general practice.