"Connect are a waste of NHS resources"

GP referred me via Connect for an acute Achilles tendon problem. No answer for months then a surly consultation with someone unqualified on the telephone before finally being sent to a gym a long way from my home. Meanwhile I referred myself directly to the hospital and was fortunate to be permitted to bypass the awful Connect and be seen by a consultant, x-rayed, scanned and seen by a proper physiotherapist at the hospital. Now I have unconnected spinal problems I have been told that I have to go via Connect again. This time, after a long delay, I was called by the Connect call centre. They propose to diagnose me by telephone without that person having any details save a questionnaire that I fill in myself and the telephone "consultation" will not be carried out by a doctor. Presumably I will sent to the Connect-owned gym again rather than the hospital. No one at UCLH thinks much of Connect. Connect seems to be making a profit by keeping patients away from doctors while charging the NHS for repeated telephone consultations with their own lesser-qualified staff.