New surgery brings 1,000 more monthly appointments for Cannock patients

The Cannock Practices Network, which secured £320,000 following a successful bid to the Prime Minister's Challenge Fund, has opened the new surgery.

The Network Surgery, which is based at Cannock Chase Hospital, offers GP and nurse appointments to patients when their own practice either has no appointments left or is closed.

The surgery is now open from 3.30pm until 8pm on weekdays and from 9am until 1pm on weekends.

There are 10 practices from the network involved in the improving patient access project including Alderwood Medical Practice, Chadsmoor Medical Practice and Moss Street Surgery.

The Cannock practices network is one of three established by the Cannock Chase clinical commissioning group.

Clive Cropper, practice manager at Moss Street Surgery and project lead, said: "We genuinely believe that this project will provide significant help to the patients of these practices.

"The increased availability that these appointments will provide is what many patients have been asking for.

"Our first session was very encouraging, with seven out of the 10 practices booking at least one patient.

"We saw 31 patients in total and all of the doctor and nurse practitioner appointments were used."

The project is funded until March 2016.

Mr Cropper added: "In order for it to continue, feedback from patients using the service is very important to help us to make that case by demonstrating its success and patient satisfaction."

Appointments are booked through a patient's own practice when they ring after 1.30pm for an appointment and there are none available.

Patients are then given the option to be seen at the new network surgery.

It is hoped that the project will also free up time in GP practices, giving extra time to GPs to spend longer with vulnerable and complex patients.

It also aims to reduce people unnecessarily visiting the minor injuries unit and A&E.

The Prime Minister's Challenge Fund was launched in October 2013 and initially made £50million available to help improve access to general practice and stimulate innovative ways of providing primary care services.

A further £100m was made available for a second wave of applications in September 2014, with the network's improving patient access project being one of just 37 successful bids out of 156 applications submitted nationally.

The project will be monitored and evaluated on a regular basis in conjunction with the Network Patient Participation Group, whose membership includes representatives from Healthwatch Staffordshire, the Carers Association, the Alzheimer's Society and Cannock Chase District Council.