13 JUNE 1952, Page 18

Patients' Plight

Sta,—Your correspondents have demolished the unsubstantiated com- plaint that many doctors resent having patients on their panel who could afford to pay. Yet general practitioners may understandably feel a little rueful when such patients, if sent to a specialist, elect to go as private patients in order to escape the frustration and discomfort of hospital queues and the lack of privacy in public hospital wards. I have done this myself, and felt distinctly guilty vis-a-vis my panel doctor, who—needless to say—has given no slightest sign of resentment.

1 have no remedy to suggest—Yours faithfully, VILLAGER.