Regular readers of the Letters pages in The Argus may remember something I wrote (February 19, 2013) concerning the problems of acute hospital beds and overworked A&E departments, and the part played by GP working hours in this problem.

I am delighted by the Prime Minister’s desire to try to remedy a situation which should never have arisen in the first place.

We are now going to have a trial, in certain areas, of GPs working from 8am until 8pm for seven days a week, with studies made of the results.

Of course, there is going to be extra financial reward for the GPs carrying out this service.

Has everyone forgotten that just a few years ago it was part of a GP’s remit to ensure cover for their own patients 24 hours a day?

The 8am to 8pm idea will help but it is not enough. The extra hours can be comfortably covered by use of sensible rotas between GPs in the same locality and further helped if GPs were spared the mountains of paperwork and other pressures they face these days.

It’s a strange world we live in today; here we are, trying to change something back to the same treatment the old family doctor once offered very successfully (for a lot less financial cost to the country).

Since retiring as a GP, I have lived in the town I served, and constantly meet my former patients. The number of times I hear the phrase, “I wish it was like it used to be, Doc,” is quite sad.

David Gordon, Windlesham Road, Shoreham