SIR - I was interested and somewhat perturbed to see advertisements to recruit volunteers for community responder teams to be first on the scene to treat heart

attack victims.

I wondered whether there was any limit to how New Labour will spin the flattery of partnership with the voluntary sector that effectively amounts to cost-cutting by getting volunteers to do more for nothing. Any willing volunteers should perhaps also watch out that they don't get persuaded into signing up to service level agreements into the bargain. I may be old-fashioned, but I had thought that such life-saving tasks used to involve GPs with their portable defibrillators, as well as ambulance staff and paramedics.

Is there some connection with last April's new GP and doctors' contracts which removed the need to take part in after-hours duties and Saturday morning surgeries? Many PCTs have found it very difficult to recruit for after-hours work.

Some private companies have tried to make it pay and some doctors have formed local consortia - some of which have collapsed. In Worcestershire, I gather that the waiting time for after-hours attention can be four hours.

WENDY HANDS,

Upton-upon-Severn.