BOLTON is set to get access to GPs seven days a week by the end of the year, under plans announced today.

Patients will be able to book appointments for evenings and weekends to fit in with family and work commitments.

Plans to transform primary care across Greater Manchester will be unveiled at a summit of the region’s health leaders and council bosses.

The key proposal is to spend £7 million to ensure everyone in the Greater Manchester who needs medical attention can access "primary care services" every day of the week.

The move is considered to be one of the first milestones of the region’s historic health devolution deal signed in February, which will give local authorities and health bosses greater control of how money is spent on health and care in Greater Manchester.

The seven-day access models differ from the current out-of-hours service because patients will be able to book appointments and doctors will have access to patient’s medical records.

Currently 500,000 people in Greater Manchester can access primary care services seven-days a week. New schemes in Wigan and Manchester are set to see that figure increase to 1.1 million.

Today’s announcement confirms plans to extend this provision across the whole of Greater Manchester — including Bolton — reaching a further 1.7 million people.

An extra £7 million has been made available to make this possible.

There are also plans to boost social care packages in a bid to help with hospital discharge figures and “avoidable admissions”.

Bolton Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris is set to play a pivotal role in the implementation of the plans as he is the health lead for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

He said: “This affirms our commitment to a whole range of ambitious public service reform to improve people’s lives.

“These days people are living busy lives and mostly families have two parents working, so they need access to a GP outside of their working hours.

“This is about accessibility and GPs coming into the world that we live in.”

Cllr Morris accepted that the roll-out of the scheme relies upon successful negotiations with GPs.

He added: “We cannot make GPs work at weekends — they are private businesses — but we are hoping that if we sit down with them, we can work something out.”

Seven-day health access formed a big part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s pre-election manifesto, but Cllr Morris said the scheme had been in the offing long before it became Mr Cameron’s “brainchild”.

He added: “A lot of time and effort has been put into this — people are living longer and we need to make sure that they have the services they need.”

In Bolton, the CCG has invested £3.4 million to give a boost to Bolton’s GPs — providing an additional 61,000 appointments a year between 8am and 6.30pm on weekdays.

Dr Wirin Bhatiani, clinical chair of Bolton CCG, said: “We welcome the additional funding announced for primary care that devolution in Greater Manchester has made possible.

“In Bolton, we are already ahead of the game with the Bolton Quality Contract providing more appointments and a better standard of service on weekdays.

"General practice is under huge pressure with existing demands, so we now need to work with practices, patients, and partners to design the best way of providing weekend access to those most in need."

Ian Williamson, chief officer for Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Devolution, said: “We now have a tremendous opportunity to build on established good practice and learning in Greater Manchester, so that we can close the health inequalities gap between our region and the rest of the UK.

“Devolution hasn’t created these new seven-day systems of working — but it can help to propel those results quicker across Greater Manchester."