I remember in the old days, back in the 1940s and 1950s, if you needed to see a doctor you pottered round to his house during surgery hours and sat in the waiting room.

This was usually a small room with hard, upright chairs, cold and invariably cloaked in cigarette smoke.

It paid to arrive early since patients were seen on a first-come, first-served basis. There might just have been a couple of people to see the doctor or there may have been a roomful. The main thing is that everybody was seen.

Today, thankfully, our surgeries and medical centres are generally warm and clean, and the service that we receive is caring and efficient. Sadly though the system is let down by the very people it is there to serve – the public.

My wife and I have had cause to see our doctor recently. We have each had different problems and both of us have been suffering a degree of pain. Upon asking for appointments we were told that the doctor was fully booked and would not be able to see us for a couple of weeks.

Imagine my concern, anger even, when I saw a notice pinned up in the practice stating that in the month of January no fewer than 67 people had failed to turn up for their doctors’ appointments and 84 for the nurses’ ones.

These for no apparent reason; simply marked “did not attend”. That, in turn, represents 11 hours of doctors’ wasted time over the month and seven hours of the nurses’. Time that could have been usefully filled by those patients who really did need to be seen fairly promptly.

Of course, there will be the occasion when one cannot visit the surgery for a very valid reason, but in this day of supposedly fast communication is it too much to ask for a message to be sent through in time so that a cancelled slot can be filled by someone in real need?

A suggestion. A hefty fine for every unnotified, missed appointment. The money, maybe, going to Savernake Hospital to further their excellent work.

Robert Macmillan, Kelham Gardens, Marlborough.