KEARSLEY GP Tony Wall has been given a magazine award after being nominated by a grateful patient.

Margaret Clegg felt that the 49 year-old father-of-four always spent time with patients and really listened. "You can take as long as you need," she said in her nomination.

Hard-pressed community doctors have a stressful life dealing with so many patients suffering from complaints ranging from the challenging to the laughable.

We normally only hear about them when things go wrong, but most manage to sort everyone out competently in spite of constant moans that they are too busy to care.

Health at the sharp end provides a difficult daily routine for our GPs, so it's great to see at least one of them getting national recognition.