GP SURGERIES across the county will be offering more than 600 additional appointments per week after receiving one-off funding from the NHS.
With a rise in demand for primary care services over the winter months, the scheme aims to reduce some of these pressures.
Patients will be able to book an appointment to see their GP as soon as they become ill, ensuring they don’t visit other services such as Accident and Emergency (A&E).
The scheme aims to continue to offer high quality primary care, clinically led services, increase the number of appointments available to patients, improve access at key pressure times over the winter, encourage patients to try to see their GP first, rather than go to A&E and support the health economy to manage patient flow.
Lynda Dando, director of primary care at the three Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Groups, said: “This scheme enables people to gain better access to primary care services by offering an increased number of appointments for people to book on the day they’re needed.
“Your GP surgery should be your first port of call for non-urgent, on-going illnesses or injuries. Using a GP saves time as they know your medical history and also frees up other services, including A&E for those who really need to be there.
“The winter months can be very busy for a number of NHS services and any extra capacity that we have will help to reduce some of these pressures.”
