New Zealand Listener

Doctors on screen

My father, GP Denver Calder, would turn in his grave at the proposal to replace in-person consultation with modern telecoms. He’d have groaned at the GP, sitting side on, looking at their computer, had he lived to see this now-standard practice.

He bookended his surgery appointments with morning and afternoon home visits, treating the whole family. He brought their babies into the world, and attended (quaint expression) the confinement of those very children having their own babies a generation later.

I guess you could call him old-fashioned. But those of us who remember such medical care still regret its passing. I can still hear him on the phone in my boyhood: “I cannot make a diagnosis on the phone.” A diagnosis on Zoom would break his heart.

There are ways of boosting GP numbers, including making their degree studies free in return for service in NZ, such as in rural practices. Lose the bean counters and let the medical schools restore what we lost.

DL Calder (New Plymouth)

TYRANNY OF THE FEW

I applaud the bravery of Jessie Watson (Upfront, March 2), volunteering her time to work in Gaza. I read, hear and see, daily, the atrocities wrought upon the Palestinian people and

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