YOUR report on Dr Gordon Gancz’s stand against the Government’s ‘care.data’ all-consuming behemoth (GP vows to take battle with the NHS through the courts, February 8) reminds us, as a family, why Dr Gancz has been and continues to be, the best possible GP we could hope to have.

For decades he has patiently, kindly and with the deepest medical wisdom, attended to our needs, all protected by an absolute commitment to patient confidentiality.

That Dr Gancz has set up blocking codes for opt-outs from care.data, plus a clear notice on his website explaining why, is all of a piece with his unwavering determination to put the care of his patients at the forefront of all he does.

Dr Gancz has devoted four decades to doctoring in Oxford, to town and gown alike, the latter as doctor to five colleges, including St Catherine’s, to which he was elected a fellow in Michaelmas 2010. In addition to his day-to-day ministrations as a GP, he also set up the pioneering University Counselling Service, a model of its kind. And now bureaucrats from NHS England’s Thames Valley Area are issuing him with a ‘notice of remediation’, which demands that he take down the opt-outs and the accompanying message on the surgery website. Should this then move to breach of contract proceedings, Dr Gancz has vowed to fight on through the courts to assert his determination to guard his patients’ rights to privacy.

If a patient wishes to opt in to care.data, fine; but it must be that way round and not wholesale appropriation of records by the NHS, with all that that implies.

BRUCE ROSS-SMITH SALLY MERCER HUW, TOM, ELINOR, & GABRIEL PRYCE Bowness Avenue Headington Oxford