Additional GP Practice appointments – let us know what you think

Ely Primary Care Network

Ely Primary Care Network is a group of six of the eight GP Practices in East Cambridgeshire. Together we look after 77,500 patients. The six Practices are:

• Burwell Surgery (Burwell)
• Haddenham Surgery (Haddenham)
• Staploe Medical Centre (Soham)
• Cathedral Medical Centre (Ely)
• St George’s Medical Centre (Littleport)
• St Mary’s Surgery (Ely)

Enhanced Access – a national development

The NHS has asked all Primary Care Networks (PCNs) across England to offer patients additional opening hours. This is a national programme called “Enhanced Access” and starts on 1^st October 2022. For a PCN of our size, we are allowed to offer 70 more hours of appointments each week.

Our plan

Our six Practices have a track record of working well together, one example being the Covid vaccination programme where we vaccinated many more people than the national average. We want to give our patients the very best GP services we can, and we believe offering these additional hours ourselves - using the doctors and nurses you already know from your local surgeries - is the best way to do this.

So, from 1^st October 2022, the six Practices of Ely Primary Care Network will work together again to - between them - offer 70 more hours of appointments each week, over and above our usual surgery opening hours.

These additional appointments will be available to all patients registered at any of our six surgeries.

Additional opening hours

The additional appointments will be during the following times:

Appointments available

These additional hours will offer face-to-face appointments as well as telephone and email consultations and some group clinics. Clinicians available will be GPs, Nurses, Healthcare Assistants, Clinical Pharmacists, and Health and Wellbeing Coaches. Patients will be able to book appointments online or by phone up to two weeks ahead by contacting their usual Practice in the usual way and appointments will be slightly longer than usual. We will reserve some of the appointments for use the same day. 

Practices will share these additional hours and take turns being open. We hope that by having different Practices open on different days throughout the week, we will make it as easy as possible for all of our patients to get to these extra appointments. Our Practice websites will make it clear which Practices are open on which days.

There will be no change to our Practice’s regular opening hours. NHS 111 and Accident & Emergency Services will still be available 24 hours a day, just as they are at the moment.

What do you think?

We would like to hear what you think about our plan, so please tell us by using the online form below.