I read your article (York doctors in court fight, Evening Press, June 20) about doctors Martin Ashley and Gill Towler being made to leave the practice and not being allowed to treat/take their patients with them.

I find it disgusting and infuriating that a family cannot choose to see its "family GP" no matter where that doctor practices.

I, and my family, travel from Acomb to Monkgate specifically to see Dr Ashley and have done so for years. Dr Ashley delivered my youngest son.

People like to see the same doctor because they know their family's history - they know you as people not just a number or ailment.

What is this country coming to when a patient's choice is stamped upon just because a practice receives money for 'bums on seats'?

I want to see 'my doctor' not just any doctor who doesn't know my history, and hasn't got the time nor the inclination to read my records. I don't want to see a doctor who has just 'dropped lucky' that they are on duty at the time of my appointment.

The court injunction is insensitive and atrocious.

I would follow Dr Ashley to any practice in an instant, if allowed, because he is a brilliant GP.

Mrs Beverley Foster,

Campbell Avenue,

Hamilton Drive, York.

...As patients of Monkgate doctors Ashley and Towler, we are appalled by the front page story in the Evening Press.

We cannot believe the High Court's decision that it is in the best interests of patients. We deplore the legal action taken by the other doctors in the York Medical Group.

Was legal action really necessary? Was any attempt made to use an arbitration procedure? If not, why not?

We could not have had better professional care than that provided by these two excellent doctors. We now find that under the terms of the injunction, we are apparently banned from having access to them.

This must be an infringement of the principles enshrined in the European Declaration of Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory.

We have no intention of remaining members of the York Medical Group under these circumstances, despite having been patients at the Monkgate practice for more than 35 years. We hope others who feel the same will take appropriate action.

Perhaps, even at this late stage, the doctors of the York Medical Group will have second thoughts and seek to have the injunction withdrawn.

Frank and Janet Harris,

Stockton Lane, York.

Updated: 12:34 Friday, June 22, 2001