I READ your article 'Don't Call Me Mate' (LET, July 24), with absolute incredulity.

I have been a general practitioner in Hyndburn for 14 years. I meet ambulance personnel just about every week at patients' homes, our surgeries and on the GP Ward in Accrington Victoria Hospital.

I have never yet been in a situation where these highly-trained professionals have not shown the utmost courtesy to the patients entrusted to their care.

We are very fortunate in Lancashire to have one of the acknowledged best ambulance services in the country. Let us, for once, not allow extreme political correctness to prevent these underpaid and largely undervalued men and women from getting on with their jobs.

DAVID WOODCOCK (Dr), Tarn Avenue, Clayton-le-Moors.