2:17pm Monday 20th April 2009
By Alex Lewis
A NEW GP service offering appointments up to 8pm and at weekends will be serving St Albans people in little over a month.
The West Hertfordshire Primary care Trust has signed a five-year deal with Herts Urgent Care, a non-profit-making enterprise run by local GPs and patient representatives which currently provides out-of-hours GP and emergency dental services to the whole county.
The new GP-led health centre is set to open its doors at Hemel Hempstead Hospital on June 1 offering bookable appointments and a walk-in service, 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.
Patients can also switch from their current surgeries to register with the centre if they like.
Mark Cockerton, chief executive of Herts Urgent Care, said: “We expect that the centre will be popular with those who find difficulty in accessing a GP during traditional opening hours.”
The PCT's director of primary care Andrew Parker said: “We are very pleased that after months of planning we have now formally signed the contracts for the West Herts Medical Centre - which is what the new centre will be known as. It is now full steam ahead to get the centre up and running."
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk