Cartoon by John Sadler www.johnsadlerillustration.com

• MY GP practice used to employ some dreadful aggressive receptionists who would greet you with a scowl and ask “What’s the matter with you?” if you went along to try to get an appointment. “They’re very busy,” was a favourite killer riposte.

Then about 10 years ago they were obviously sent on a course because they began to be dismissive of us in a much more pleasant manner.

Either way a visit to the GP was a challenge and getting into the hallowed consulting room gave us patients a sense of achievement which must have been a bit beneficial to our general health.

The other day I was expected to check myself in on a machine. The human staff sat inscrutable, behind glass, beyond our reach. Suddenly how I missed the hatchet-faced receptionists of old!

One day, no doubt, science will provide an app or something to compensate for the ever-diminishing human contact in our lives which is known to be bad for our health.

Until that day banks, shops, GPs, hospitals should be forbidden by law from phasing out humans.

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