DON’T fight against us, campaign with us – that was the message from a Hook GP for a patient who complained about not getting an appointment at short notice.

Dr Sarah Longstaff, a GP at Hook Surgery, in Reading Road, said that patients wishing to improve the provision of care should write to their local MP to request an increase in funds to employ more doctors and nurses.

She was responding to a letter written to The Gazette by Roger Robertson, of London Road, Hartley Wintney. He complained about the Hook and Hartley Wintney Medical Partnership, saying it is “very difficult” to be seen unless you have booked an appointment several days in advance.

Mr Robertson added: “There was a time when the GPs within this particular practice provided 24/7 service and they themselves were held in high esteem by the local population.

“We now have a situation where, in general terms, it is a well-paid 9am to 5pm job and any sense of vocation has long disappeared. I guess it is called progress.”

Dr Longstaff responded: “To accuse general practice of being a 9-to-5 job is completely inaccurate. Most GPs are now working in excess of 10 to 12-hour days within the practice, and many more hours from home.

“There is a national GP recruitment crisis caused by the increasing stress and workload we now face, and many doctors are taking early retirement, emigrating or leaving the profession.”

She said the doctors at the practice work out-of-hours at Hantsdoc, which is becomingly increasingly onerous as patient numbers rise and Government funding decreases.

Dr Longstaff added if anyone calls for an urgent appointment, they will be called by a doctor or nurse practitioner, and if an appointment is needed, they will be seen the same day.