I'M very much dismayed by the letters in the Echo from patients in Sunderland who have been made very fearful over the propaganda that GPs have been putting out, and it is only propaganda, about surgeries that are supposed to be going to be closed.

Our Government has denied that any practices are going to be closed. In particular, the Southwick Health Centre has been reputed to be on the agenda for closure.

This is outrageous. This is quite a large medical practice. All patients would be up in arms, and rightly so, if this health centre were to close.

It seems to me that patients are being brainwashed over these supposed closures.

Sunderland has been under-doctored for years and the fact that we are getting three new practices can only be good for our city.

In the past I haven't approved of . I've visited two wallk-in centres, Bunny Hill and Grindon. These are beautiful centres.

The staff there must be thrilled to work in such places. The one at Grindon is there because there are huge numbers of people living nearby. Patients (and we are all patients), should be reassured by their GPs that they will nearly always be available for them.

It seems to me that GPs are very anxious to get the money that is being put into these walk-in centres.

GPs are claiming that they can do all the work that these walk-in centres do. They certainly cannot.
Joan Carney,
Sunderland

My verucca struggle
I HAVE got about 15 verrucas on my foot. I went to my GP about this problem about six months ago and told him that I have used all of the treatments available from the chemist and that they were painful when I walk, even though I had been filing them down.

My GP said that he was going to start a course of verruca freezing once a week at the surgery once he had enough patients with veruccas. I waited about five weeks before the treatment started. I attended every session once a week for about six weeks. The other people at the clinic only had one or two verrucas so at the end of the treatment they had no more problem.

But with me having so many on my foot this one session of treatment wasn't enough to get rid of them. The doctor said he wasn't holding any more clinics as there weren't enough patients again. So I have had to suffer with the pain because when I put pressure on my heel they are sore. I have continued to put treatments on from the chemist and to file them down but nothing seems to be helping.

So I went back to the doctors to see if they could refer me to someone else as I have had these veruccas for about a year now. The doctor told me that she would see what age you need to be to see a foot specialist. When she came back she told me that I have got to go private to see a foot specialist and get them sorted out.

I think that this is appalling considering I am only 16 years old and I am a student, I live with my mother who has got a disability and she can't afford to pay to go private. The doctor said they could only help me if I had an ingrown toenail but because I have verrucas I have basically have to suffer.

Is there any way I can see a foot specialist on the NHS?
Stephanie Gallon,
Washington

Using disabled bays
DOES anyone ever check as to who is using the only two disabled parking spaces outside Sainsbury's in Fulwell?

Recently in pouring rain I had to park on the main road as the limited number of regular spaces had also been taken.

My point is that the two allocated spaces were taken by a woman using the cash point and a man waiting while his partner popped in for what looked like a bottle of juice.
Regular Shopper

Tip's grip loosens
AT a recent meeting of the TGS (Talk Good Sense) debating society in Sunderland Reserve Club it was unanimously decided that Tip's grasp of history and geography has discredited the teachings of Hendon Board Academy.

In the past he has moved Hendon Burn half-a-mile west and also claimed to have watched Jimmy Nail perform at Club Eleven. Unless Mr Nail was a rock star at the age of eight years old, this would have been highly unlikely.

Now he has moved a nightclub to the other side of the road and two hundred yards west to the site of the Boulevard. The club he refers to was once a Chinese restaurant named the Blue Sky (about 1962). When this closed it became a nightclub know as the Porama then changing to the Manhattan, Zhivago and now called Ku Club.

So if Tip wants to conserve the good name of Hendon Board "he must try harder".
Lakeside Alf

Faith restored
WOULD you please thank the very kind person who found my husband Bob's Laurel and Hardy vase. It went missing on Father's Day at Sunderland Cemetery. There are still a lot of honest people in Sunderland.

My faith has been restored. Thank you.
Phyllis Redman,
Lodore Court,
Sunderland