Background

Currently, GP Practices are required to deliver services during their core hours of 08.00am– 6.00pm Monday to Friday.  From 1^st October 2022, primary care networks are required to deliver an enhanced access service.  Primary Care Networks (PCNs) are a group of practices that work together as a network in their local community. The Practices work together to provide a wide variety of services.  This new service aims to improve patient access to primary care.

Our group of practices will provide bookable appointments outside core hours within the Enhanced Access period of 6.30pm-8pm weekday evenings and 9am-5pm on Saturdays.  Our multi-disciplinary team will offer a range of general practice services, including ‘routine’ services such as screening, vaccinations, and health checks.

Proposed Opening Times

On Monday to Friday 6.30pm – 8.00pm and Saturday 9.00am - 5.00pm, appointments will be available to patients registered with any of the 4 practices above. Appointments will take place across all practices and our hub based at Jubilee Medical Group. 

The proposed venue and timings are (clinicians available will vary by practice):

Appointment types will be a mixture of face to face and remote consultations where the most appropriate member of the primary health care team will be able to assess non-urgent medical conditions that are not resolving on their own and offer management of long-term conditions. 

This will include a mixture of General Practitioners (GP), Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP) Practice Nurses & Health Care Assistants (HCA).

Types of appointments that will be offered at the hub include:

• Routine and acute condition appointments with the GP and ANP
• NHS Health Checks
• Dressings 
• Pill Checks
• Cervical Screening 
• Blood Tests
• Blood Pressure Checks
• ECGs
• Vaccinations

Benefits

By providing these appointments within our local area patients will have additional non-urgent access to more local primary care services than are currently provided.  Additionally, there will be some appointments that are bookable for the same day.

Practices will have options for patients that prefer appointments outside of core hours.  This will hopefully increase availability of appointments within core hours for those who choose this time.