GP concerns

It was very worrying to see a news report that only one of the five GP out of hours centres in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was open on Saturday night as it was stated that no doctor was willing to work between midnight and 8am although the home visiting service was still operating.

Why is this? Is their workload so busy during the week that they just can’t do it or is there a shortage of GPs? Do doctors find this situation acceptable themselves?

I believe that large fees are paid for these shifts but an out-of-hours doctor told me recently that there are 750 GPs on duty on weekdays but only 65 at evenings and weekends.

This puts extra pressure onto A&E departments and GP surgeries the following day and delays treatment for those who urgently need it.

Many patients will not have the transport or money or be well enough to travel longer distances for urgent care.

This is a potentially dangerous crisis for patients and I believe it stems from the new GP contract which allows GPs to opt out of out-of-hours care.

I have always had good care and I don’t know what the solution is but one has to be found quickly.

Dorothy Connor, Rutherglen

Green energy

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has urged the Scottish Government to back his call to French Energy giant EDF Energy for it to allocate construction contracts for a £2billion wind farm to go to Scotland rather than overseas.

He wants the turbine jackets for the Firth of Forth offshore wind farm to be fabricated at BiFab’s yards in Fife.

I am grateful to Mr Leonard for pointing out that shipping components from Indonesia to Scotland would create emissions equivalent to 30 million cars.

And here is me believing the fairy stories that the thousands of wind turbines erected in Scotland are green.

Clark Cross, via email