BOLTON could soon have more doctors, more nurses and more receptionists as health bosses invest £3.8 million in improving the town's GP practices.

Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is in charge of designing and buying health services for the borough, has come up with the investment plan to bolster GPs practices — creating an extra 61,000 appointment slots.

Managers say they hope by spending money on primary care, it will stop people ending up in hospital in the long run.

Dr Stephen Liversedge, the clinical director of primary care and health improvement, revealed at the Bridge Conference Centre that the funding will be used to significantly expand the number of GPs, practice nurses, health care assistants and receptionists.

Each of the borough’s 50 GP practices will then be set targets — from 19 different standards — to get them to improve the access and treatment to the service.

The targets include:

  • Making sure appointments are available between 8am and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, as some practices currently only open on half days.
  • Letting patients pre-book appointments a month in advance.
  • Making sure children under 12 are seen by a clinician on the same day.

Doctors and nurses will also need to improve their screening rates for breast, bowel and cervical cancer, and give the flu jab to more vulnerable people.

New targets specify that when a patient is suspected of having cancer, a referral to a consultant should be made within 24 hours, and a new system should be put in place to make sure the patient attended their appointment.

Dr Liversedge told attendees that he was aware of the extra pressure being put on doctors and nurses to meet targets, in exchange for the investment — and that their time should not be taken up "box ticking" instead of treating patients.

He said: “We are aware that this ‘target arena’ can mean that sometimes GPs or practices spend most of their time at a computer screen — we are aware of it and we are trying to address it.”

He added that as part of the new plans, patients should be told how to complain if they aren’t happy with the treatment they receive.

“There is nothing wrong with complaining — unless someone tells us what is happening, we don’t know what is going on”, Dr Liversedge said.

“Their comments can be a driver for improvement, whereas if people put up with stuff we would never know.”

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