MR Limmer is absolutely correct (ViewPoints, December 3) that patients must come first and that should mean the NHS keeps up with the rest of the world in technological advances, whether that be the latest body scanners or using the internet to choose and book hospital appointments.

My parents installed the latest technology, for them, in their home 45 years ago.

It was called a telephone and it saved them walking or catching a bus to their surgery to book a GP appointment. On the rare occasions I have visited my GP, almost the first thing he does after saying hello is to find my records on his computer!

I wonder if it is the ‘norm’ to use the Internet to get all the letters onto the pages of this newspaper.

The norm doesn’t preclude, for example, using the phone or visiting a surgery in person, it is just progress, as a telephone was all those years ago.

To suggest that using the internet to book NHS appointments is to benefit so-called friends of the Secretary of State seems to be making a political point for the sake of it.

It is also worth noting that the Leveson report totally exonerates Mr Hunt of any impropriety with regard to News International!

IAN CUMMINGS

Gibson Close

Abingdon