Yes, many GPs work only 3.5 days a week, but the number of hours they do should be respected

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

NHS England is urging patients to cancel appointments rather than just not show up as it revealed more than 15 million GP appointments are missed each year (PA)

Will Gore states that the country is in ruin due to the Conservative government hell bent on ignoring local issues whilst they argue about Brexit. He states that the average GP works less than 3.5 days and that this may be contributing to why GP appointments are so hard to get.

Both he and your readership should be reminded that Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard (chair of the Royal College of GPs) was recently quoted as saying an average day for a GP typically includes seeing in excess of 30 patients face to face, 14 phone call appointments and several home visits. Following a clinical day that lasts about 12 hours, GPs then have to review and make decisions about blood tests, scans and other investigations for their patients, typically this would add several further hours to the day.

3.5 days a week may sound like a breeze, however they are still working in excess of 50 hours in those days. It is no wonder they do not want to work any more days and indeed to do so would be unsafe. The government should invest more in primary care to ensure that the current level of service, being held together by burnt out doctors, doesn’t start to fall apart.

Shahram Shirazi
Address supplied

Privatisation is the root cause of the failing prison service

I think I read on your front page that a government minister, Rory Stewart, is admitting at least part responsibility for the failings of the prison service.

In his case I think perhaps he cannot be held totally responsible for a situation that is a direct result of this government’s austerity policies. Coupled with their ideological adherence to privatisation at any cost. From PFI to the railways and probation service, to mention but a few recent examples, it is clear that while on paper savings can be had, in practice the only beneficiaries are the senior executives of these, clearly incompetent outsourcing, companies, while we taxpayers are eventually left to pick up the pieces.

G Forward
Stirling

Just let gay couples dance

Give me a break! Not everything has to be viewed as a political statement. Hence I just don’t understand the fuss about allowing same sex couples on Strictly Come Dancing. A same sex couple would just be two people who want to dance together. Please can everyone just climb down from their moral or political high grounds and let two people do what they want.

Steve Mumby
Bournemouth

Jacob Rees-Mogg – this is what we want

What we want from Jacob Rees-Mogg is not a “clean Brexit” but a “come clean Brexit” proclaiming the dire consequences of a no-deal (Jacob Rees-Mogg and gang want to hoodwink voters with talk of a “clean Brexit”).

Roger Hinds
Surrey

Why plant milk is preferable to dairy milk

World plant milk day takes place on 22 August, and this year more people than ever will be avoiding dairy “products” and reaching for alternatives that are kinder to the environment, human health, and animals. Research indicates that the number of vegans in Britain has risen by 700 per cent in just the last two years.

Milk production has a significant impact on the environment, accounting for 20 per cent of animal agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions and around 4 per cent of total global emissions. In the UK alone, 1.8 million cows are exploited for their milk.

On dairy farms, cows are forcibly impregnated via artificial insemination, only for their beloved babies to be torn away from them so the milk that nature intended for them can instead be consumed by humans. Both mother cows and their calves are emotionally traumatised by this separation.

Humans are the only species on the planet to drink another animal’s milk and the only one to drink milk beyond weaning age. Anyone ready to be weaned can opt for one of the many non-dairy milks – made from soya beans, almonds, oats, rice, coconuts, and other plants – that are readily available at virtually every supermarket, health food store, and corner shop and which offer all the taste but none of the cruelty (or cholesterol) of cows’ milk.

Jennifer White, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
London N1

Shifting to RPI from CPI

Ann Pettifor gave an interesting account of the debate around the use of the retail prices index (RPI) and the consumer prices index (CPI). (What shifting to RPI from CPI means for the average worker, beyond rail fares).

She is right that the debate is a complicated one. While the Royal Statistical Society does consider that the CPI probably underestimates clothing inflation (and hence overall inflation), it is clear that the RPI currently overestimates it. And we are not in any form of “alliance” to defend RPI against those who favour CPI’s use instead.

Our view is that CPI is most suited for macroeconomic purposes such as setting interest rates. But a different kind of index is needed for measuring the household experience of inflation. The RPI used to meet this need, but since 2010 it has overestimated the rise in clothing prices and, very regrettably, after 2012 the ONS stopped researching how to correct this.

Looking forward, we welcome the development of the new household cost index (HCI) which we hope will serve as a better measure of inflation as experienced by the public.

Finally, we oppose the practice of “arbitrage” in which successive governments appear to have used RPI and CPI very selectively indeed. All too often, RPI (which tends to be higher) is chosen when setting people’s outgoings, such as their rail fares or student loans. But CPI is used when (for example) state pensions are being paid out. In our view, this practice is reprehensible and long overdue for reform.

Hetan Shah, executive director of the Royal Statistical Society
London EC1