Sir, In response to your article of June 11 describing the parking congestion and missed appointments at Wallingford medical practice, I’d like to suggest an option that would benefit many groups of patients — that the the practice opens later into the evenings and perhaps even at the weekend.

For many people who work “standard” full-time hours, obtaining a GP appointment means taking time out of work. Is it really too much to ask that GPs, as public servants, adopt more flexible working practices that enable their patients to seek appointments in the evenings or at weekends?

As well as helping a great many working people, it would ease the parking pressure for everybody. No doubt those who work drive to the practice to get to their appointments after work, or to a make a rapid departure afterwards. If these people were given more suitable timings, the parking pressures would be eased for everyone.

The solution to the parking problems does not necessarily need further swathes of concreting over fields — flexible working practices benefit many people. If our GPs adopted more progressive hours that benefited more people, the traffic would be better distributed throughout the week.

Lee Upcraft

Clapcot Way

Wallingford