Last week I had to call my GP.

After listening to a lengthy recorded message telling me that due to Covid-19 the surgery was under lockdown and services were limited, blah, blah, and that I should go to the practice website and use the Doctor Link app, I finally heard a human voice.

I explained my problem and asked if a GP would ring me.

‘Can you send a photograph?’ was the reply.

I was tempted to say, I had not realised it was possible to take a picture of pain, but instead I said that being in my ninth decade, I had neither the equipment nor the ability.

A couple of hours later a paramedic - not a doctor - phoned me.

In the news I read that GPs will receive a bonus of £11.50 for every obese patient they refer for weight management help as part of the Government’s anti-obesity drive.

The scheme, run by the NHS, will pay doctors to put up to 700.000 patients on special diets with apps and wearable activity trackers.

My immediate thought was that this was yet another nice little earner for GPs but still one that will not actually require them to see patients.

I am not alone I am sure, when I say it should be linked to getting surgeries back to normal working.

FRUSTRATED PATIENT

(name and address supplied)