EMPTY GP surgeries, vaccine distribution and schools reopening after summer were the topics raised by columnists in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Janet Street-Porter said the real scandal in the NHS lay in the empty GP waiting rooms all over the country.

“Signs on external doors say ‘do not enter without an appointment’ - so the sick stay at home and potentially shorten their lives, forced to hang on to the phone waiting for ages or try and log on, remember their NHS number, password and navigate a complicated website,” she said. “It’s easier for Michael Gove to enter a nightclub mask-less and make a complete tit of himself, than it is to meet your local GP face-to-face.”

She said the ‘highly paid professionals’ had become the elusive branch of the NHS.

“By forcing us to talk to them online, GP’s are discriminating against some of the most vulnerable people the NHS needs to help- the physically handicapped, those with dementia and the elderly.

“The time has come for the government and NHS bosses to insist that face to face GP consultations must be prioritised and made readily available.”

The Daily Express

Ross Clark said Prince Harry’s latest missive – complaining about inequality in the global distribution of vaccines – cannot be left to pass.

“He said less than two per cent of people in the developing world have received a single dose at this point, and many of their healthcare workers are still not even vaccinated. We cannot move forward together unless we address this imbalance as one.”

“It is the inference that Britain and other developing countries are somehow depriving the developing world of vaccines that is so offensive. Britain helped set up COVAX to distribute Covid vaccines across the developing world and has so far donated £548million to it.”

He said the virus that causes Covid seems far more ‘at home’ in the UK’s damp, cold climate and sub-Saharan Africa, for example, has had mercifully few deaths.

“Were Prince Harry still a working royal he would be a lot better advised on these issues than he appears to be.”

The Independent

Victoria Richards said you can really only make summer holidays work if you make friends with other parents.

“How else to plug the gaps left void by pricey summer camps and the cost of childcare; or to help those who don’t have family support nearby – if at all?,” she said. “I love my kids more than anything else in the world, but I also really, really, really need a break from them,”

She can’t wait for her children to go back to school sosheI can start saving some money again, get a sense of routine back,and work properly without keeping half an ear out for ‘Terrible Unknown Incidents’.

“When you’re around each other every single day for six long weeks (let’s not even start reminiscing about lockdown), you crave quiet, peaceful times, you need moments away to yourself to be able to remember who you are.”