SIR - A shocking 60 people per day chance the possibility of a short wait at accident and emergency when they don't need to be there (Worcester News, March 19).

Given the frequent talk about violence in A&E departments and potentially lethal hospital infections, it's amazing anyone goes there so casually.

Walk-in primary care centres are a great idea and would ease the pressure both on GPs and A&E departments.

Certainly, many individuals are not in a position to distinguish between something that needs to be seen today and something that could wait a day or two for the GP. They can become very anxious. The relief of their anxiety is not something than be quantified in waiting time targets and I am sure professionals appreciate this.

People die every year because they ignore mild symptoms that turn out to be something sinister and it might be better that a few people trouble the busy professionals with something that might be trivial than encourage a culture of putting it off for another day, when treatment might prove more difficult or costly.

My prescription for a healthier NHS would be a higher ratio of clinicians to pen-pushers and a greater emphasis on preventative healthcare. We need earlier diagnosis of dangerous diseases though screening programmes. A considerable number of in-patient beds are occupied through alcohol and smoking-related disease. and thousands of patients every year fail to turn up for appointments.

Tackle this lot and the situation would be greatly improved across the healthcare landscape.

Andrew Brown, Worcester.