Extra appointments have been made available at Primary Care Hubs and many GP surgeries across parts of Cornwall for urgent-on-the-day medical needs to improve access for local people.
NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board has worked with local GP surgeries to improve access, which has included funding an extra 25,000 appointments, at 11 new primary care hub locations and many GP surgeries across Cornwall since April last year. On average 2,500 patients are seen each month, sometimes increasing to 3,500 during winter through the extra appointments.
By enabling GPs to redirect those with urgent-on-the-day medical needs to primary care hubs, it creates capacity for GPs to see patients in their own homes, or those who may need regular review, such as people with long-term conditions, who would benefit from seeing someone who personally understands their needs.
This winter that has amounted to around 3,500 extra appointments per month, with 1,000 additional appointments in the last 2 weeks of January. The investment in primary care hubs originally started in December 2023 and has been running for over a year, with plans to continue in 2025/26.
This extra investment and commitment to improve access comes in response to local people saying having better and easier access to GP appointments was a top priority, in NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s community conversation engagement, which saw 10,000 provide feedback on what they wanted from local health and care services.
Dr Chris Reid, Chief Medical Officer for NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board said: “This investment into providing extra appointments is enabling our GPs to have the capacity to offer more routine appointments to see those patients with complex care needs, who may need to see a specific clinician who is familiar with their care or who knows that patient very well. This can also include having time to make home visits, for those unable to get to their GP surgery.”
Members of the public should contact their GP practice in their usual way. Once triaged by their doctor, they may be offered an appointment at a hub or a GP surgery depending on their need.
The type of conditions typically seen at primary care hubs, which provide same day urgent appointments covers many winter illnesses including coughs, chest infections, sore throats, urinary tract infections.
Dr Reid added: “Investing into general practice service in this way relieves pressure on the health system as a whole, helping our GPs and also supporting secondary care services such as NHS 111 and ultimately our hospitals too.
“By giving GP and staff within surgeries the time to see patients with complex care needs in a more proactive fashion, it reduces the chances of patients deteriorating and therefore helps reduce the burden on other areas such as the emergency department.”
Primary care hubs are staffed by practitioners with a minimum of 3 years’ experience of minor illness, such as advanced nurse practitioners, paramedics and GPs. The staff work in addition to their usual working hours.
The locations of the 11 primary care hubs across Cornwall have been decided by the primary care networks.
Paramedic Lewis Clark works at the St Austell Healthcare hub. He said: “My role here in the winter hub is to see minor illnesses, chest infections, ear infections. We’re trying to ease pressure by seeing people sooner, getting people treated earlier, which may prevent them from needing to go to hospital. We’ve had very positive feedback.”
GP surgeries across Cornwall routinely offer an average of more than 350,000 appointments every month.
The additional support offered by primary care hubs is set to continue in 2025/26, with NHS Cornwall aiming to deliver a recurrent additional 55,000 GP appointments.
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