Locums deserve their share too

The sight-test fee is for the practitioner who performs the test, not for the practice owner. Current rates are already less than appropriate, considering our qualifications and responsibility. If Lyndon Taylor and Andrew Jarvis (optician, Letters, December 18/25) believe that they are entitled to take a part of the test fee from their locums to cover practice expenses, it would be only fair if their locums take a similar percentage of the profit they make by selling spectacles and contact lenses. Most practices live from selling rather than testing. A higher test fee, paid from health authorities or patients to practitioners, is by no means at the expense of the practice. It would just prevent the (undeserved) increase of the owners' current profit. Norbert Hartmann Bramhall, Cheshire