GPs beat target for longer hours

MORE than three in four of all doctor’s surgeries in Oldham are now open to patients outside normal working hours, new figures have revealed.

The proportion of family doctors opening in the evenings and at weekends has increased dramatically to reach 78 per cent across the borough, with 36 of the 46 taking part.

It follows changes to the GP contract to reward practices that extend their opening hours by an average of three hours a week— in the early mornings, evenings or weekends or a combination of these to reflect the needs of patients.

It means Oldham has already achieved the Government’s aim of getting at least half of GP surgeries to open later or at weekends by the end of the year.

Nationally, of 8,284 practices, 3,128 (37.8 per cent) offered extended opening hours.

Shauna Dixon, director of clinical leadership at Oldham Primary Care Trust, said: “It has always been one of our main priorities to improve services so that patients have access to the healthcare they need at the time they need it.

“We, like other PCTs across the country, are working with our GP practices to look at them offering extra opening times.

“I’m delighted to say that in Oldham we’ve had a fantastic response from our doctors.”

Oldham’s town centre walk-in centre, open seven days a week, has offered people the chance to see a health professional from early morning until late in the evening since it opened nearly four years ago.

Each surgery will do things slightly differently, depending on when its patients want the extra appointments.

For some it might be earlier in the morning and for others one or two evenings a week.

Businesses have complained they lose 38 million working hours and £1 billion a year because employees visit their GP during working hours.

Last month the DoH announced it would publish the figures monthly to demonstrate more patients were able to see their GP at a time that suited them.

Health Minister Ivan Lewis said: “NHS patients are entitled to flexible primary care services which are organised around their often busy lives.

“These figures demonstrate that rapid progress is being made to ensure that at least 50 per cent of all practices offer some evening and weekend appointments by the end of the year.”