HAVING been a patient at my local doctors’ surgery in Hutton Rudby for more than 60 years and seeing the sad passing of Drs Bennett, Rider and Davies over those years, I feel I must bestow my heartfelt gratitude for the most excellent service afforded to three generations of my family.

This includes all our current doctors and staff, who are without doubt the most caring people one could ever ask for.

On a recent visit, my wife, Sue, noted a message on the noticeboard showing that more than 40 appointments had not been kept in April alone, by indifferent or absent-minded patients, thus not only costing the surgery substantial amounts of money but also depriving the genuinely sick of an early appointment.

A simple telephone call to cancel should be the order of the day.

Those with mobile phones receive reminder texts but maybe in the case of forgetfulness a written reminder on the breakfast table would suffice, or is it just another sign of the current ever increasing could not care less attitude which seems to be prevalent today.

Perhaps a name and shame list might be a rude awakening to these apathetic people but then that may not be politically correct.

Please let us all strive to be responsible citizens and honour our appointment commitments in future.

With an average of more than 500 missed per year without adding the more than 150 hospital appointments arranged by the surgery also being missed, the hierarchy in the NHS just may consider whether we really need a surgery in Hutton Rudby - think about it!

Trevor Mason, Swainby