HEALTH chiefs in Bolton are worried patients do not know about a new initiative to provide 61,000 extra GP appointments a year — and are still turning up at A&E instead.

NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and GP practices in the borough launched their pioneering quality contract — the first of its kind in the country — on April 1.

It means all GP practices in Bolton now have to stay open between 8am and 6.30pm, ending traditional lunchtime and half day closing, to create 61,000 more appointments a year.

The contract, which will save £400,000, also guarantees children under 12 a same-day clinician’s assessment and was launched to reduce hospital attendances.

But bosses have said there is still more to be done to promote the scheme and change people’s perceptions.

CCG board members were shown a ‘patient story’ presentation featuring questionnaire answers from 140 people who had visited the Royal Bolton Hospital’s A&E department earlier this month.

Some said they had come straight to A&E without trying to make a GP appointment, others believed they would not be able to get one, and some had visited a GP but wanted a second opinion.

Su Long, chief officer of the CCG, told a board meeting: “We have said that this year we are going to make a difference to GP access and if the people of Bolton do not notice that we have, then we have failed.”

She added: “A lot of people do not appear to have the message their GP is open for business all week, as it should be.

“We need to work out what we can do to change people’s perceptions when they come in to A&E.”

Joe Leigh, a lay board member who was chairing the meeting in chairman Wirin Bhatiani’s absence, said: “Unless the hospital starts rejecting patients and unless people are told you should not have come here, there is no reason why they should not do it.”