One reader believes our local GPs don't get enough credit.

I think it's time for general practice to get some praise. Not all surgeries can offer quick appointments or ready referral to specialists but most try hard.

GPs are by their very nature generalists looking for answers often to mundane problems. Sometimes they can solve the problems themselves but often they need to use hospitals for back-up. Their role is not glamorous. We don't hear much about them in Holby or Casualty.

The surgeons in all disciplines seem to be the real high flyers. Most medical students want to emulate them, not someone who sits at a desk in your neighbourhood and mine.

We have been patients at Magdalen Medical Practice for more than 30 years, at least 20 of them with Dr Pinto and his colleagues.

I have long-standing issues requiring regular consultation every couple of months and the list is growing, now I'm in my 70s.

When hospital intervention has been necessary, we have been referred unfailingly. Mostly, it has been a series of checks on our continuing problems, with the addition of carefully-prescribed medication or in-house clinics.

All this achieved with patience and good humour over nearly a third of our lives, by one doctor. When we moved, it was within the practice area because Dr Pinto and the entire team continue with a few changes to be always excellent.

Few people can be said to have our lives in their hands. That is the role of general practice in the NHS and Magdalen Medical Practice, in particular.

Boring, dull, unexciting? I don't think so. Without this team, my wife and I wouldn't be having a good retirement or, perhaps, any retirement.

Medical students reading this please note, we need you to consider this kind of life-saving when you qualify.