I READ with horror and indignation the action being carried out by the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust against Dr Barney Williams by withholding £10,685 from his budget, and threatening to close him down from April 1 because he can no longer give cover 24 hours a day.

If this action goes ahead then the trust led by chief executive Barbara Smith will rightly earn the title of April fools of the year for the National Health Service.

Due to the increase in population in Chippenham, all of our doctors are stretched to breaking point and most of the practices cannot take on any more patients.

Should Dr Williams cease practising it would be a disaster for all of his 3,600 patients, including my own family.

Also, it may well be that many of the most fragile of his elderly patients could be put at risk by the withdrawal of Dr Williams' own close personal friendship, care and support.

Where are we to go then, the 3,600 patients cared for by Dr Williams? Will we be bussed to Malmesbury or Devizes or will the trust conveniently make us just another statistic to be forgotten?

The Out of Hours Co-operative formed by north Wiltshire doctors means that they are only on call after hours very occasionally. Their action in excluding only Dr Williams from this co-operative is, at the very least, disgraceful.

It means that for years Dr Williams has been the only doctor in the Kennet and North Wiltshire area who has had to cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Now, having arrived at an age when he finds it impossible to give this cover without it affecting both his quality of service to patients and his own health, he is punished by the trust. What lunacy is this? He has repeatedly asked the trust for help in his dilemma without results.

We know that doctors' contracts are made to provide our local community with the best service possible, but when it becomes physically impossible for one of our doctors to continue to supply the seven day, 24-hour support he should not be disciplined like an errant schoolboy, but helped to resolve his difficulty.

Dr Williams deserves our compassion and gratitude for the services he has rendered to the community these many years, not the cold face of bureaucracy.

The trust's actions seem like an attempt to drive Doctor Williams out of the medical profession in our area. Perhaps it should bear in mind its obligation to ensure the best interest of the community that pays the salaries. These actions are most certainly not in the best interest of 3,600 members of that community, but are the actions of April Fools.

The inclusion of Dr Williams in the Out of Hours Co-operative by north Wiltshire doctors would probably resolve this problem to everyone's satisfaction. Perhaps the trust can use its influence to mediate between Dr Williams and the co-operative doctors to this end?

To our Primary Care Trust I say, "Please do not become yet another health service laughing stock, but help us to retain the services of this genuine benefactor to our community."

I intend to register my protest with all the relevant ministers, MPs, NHS departments etc., and I hope all your readers do the same. Also we would hope that the Gazette will attract the attention of the national media including TV, to help prevent or reverse this bureaucratic mess.

WILLIAM DOUGLAS

Ridings Mead

Chippenham