A private out-of-hours provider, claiming to be the UK's first patient subscription-based service, already has more than 600 patients on its launch this month.

In their FAQs is this:Are the Doctors English? Our most popular question! All of our doctors are British. " If this is a deliberate policy they are, surely, in breech of The Race Relations Act 1976 \(Amendment) Regulations 2003

This is a snip, 93p per patient per day, that's £204,000 a year extra to divide between ? doctors. I don't care what colour the attending doctor is as long as he or she has a full grasp of English language this can and has led to serious mistakes.

Interesting development! Are we reverting back to old fashioned method of deputising service?