PROPOSALS to shake up on the the town’s biggest GP services could be about to change.

Waters Meeting Health Centre may be retaining its out of hours (GPOOH) service after the public criticised plans to move it to the Royal Bolton Hospital.

NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) put forth the proposal earlier this year but has reconsidered following a series of public engagement sessions.

Instead, the CCG plans to keep the GPOOH at the centre in Waters Meeting Road and commission another in the hospital grounds – and a possible other elsewhere.

Chief officer Su Long said: “It could operate from two sites and offer some appointments at a third site.

“The national requirement is to bring primary out of hours to the hospital emergency services site and that is certainly possible and t keep the out of hours running and waters Meeting.

“The fact we could have more than one site means more access for people.”

Among the objections to the initial proposals included concern over transport to the hospital site, parking availability of the already busy site and the costs to park in the grounds.

There were also concerns about the safety of the grounds at night and a need for translators for some patients.

While many backed plans for two sites - patients preferred a town centre location as to the hospital, based in Farnworth, and Waters Meeting, near Astley Bridge.

However nearly half said they would use the service if it moved to the hospital, with only 24 per cent saying they would use it less.

Bolton patients have access to GPOOH, delivered by BARDOC, as well as extended GPS hours scheme and pre-booked weekend appointments, delivered by Bolton GP Federation.

None of the services are run as walk-ins and patients must make an appointment before attending.

NHS England have set out guidelines for GPOOH services to be move to work alongside A&E.

The CCG must also extend GP hours to 225 extra per week from 135.

The changes will also see the extended hours services brought under one provider to streamline the services.

It has been estimated that it would cost in the region of £4 million to implement and run the change in services, including running a minimum of three GPOOH services.

Ms Long said full costs, staffing numbers and opening hours could not be set in stone until plans had been clarified with a new provider.

She added: “The first thing we are going to do is find which providers wish to run the services and what they need to run these services.

“It might be that between three sites it might not be financially viable to run them all at the same time. Some may run different hours to other.

“A single provider is the best use of the service. We want to make it simpler for Bolton people who want to see a GP any day or night.”

The full report of the proposals and public engagement session will be presented to the CCG board meeting in Friday, where members will decided whether to back the change in proposals.

The meeting is open to the public and starts at 12.30pm at St Peter’s House in Silverwell Street, Bolton.