General Practitioners: Rother Valley

(asked on 30th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to maintain the level of out-of-hours GP cover in Rother Valley constituency.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 7th February 2020

Evening and weekend general practice appointments are routinely available across the country to enable patients to find appointments at a time convenient to them.

NHS Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) commissions a Rotherham wide general practitioner (GP) out of hours service from The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust. The service provides care for patients with an urgent primary care need out of core GP hours and is accessed via NHS 111.

The CCG has also commissioned extended access hubs across Rotherham, the hubs are located in four sites across Rotherham to ensure equity of access and are open to all patients registered with a Rotherham GP. Plans are in place to allow NHS 111 to access these appointments also.

In January, NHS Rotherham CCG commissioned a further hub on site at the Rotherham hospital.

NHS Rotherham CCG has commissioned the Rotherham Health App, which enables patients to check their symptoms, order repeat medication, book appointments on-line, book direct into physio services, and into the primary care extended access hubs.

Additionally, NHS England, is undertaking a national review of access to general practice services. The review’s main objective is to improve patient access both in hours and at evenings and weekends and reduce unwarranted variation in experience.

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