The PCTs are: Manchester, Barking and Dagenham, Knowsley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton City, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, Liverpool, Sunderland Teaching, Birmingham East and North, Halton and St Helens, Heart of Birmingham Teaching, Barnsley, Leicester City, Oldham, Blackburn with Darwen, Stoke on Trent, Hounslow, Hull, Nottingham City, Blackpool, Ashton, Leigh and Wigan, Dudley, Bolton, Greenwich Teaching, Sefton, Medway Teaching, Salford, Hartlepool, Tameside and Glossop, Walsall Teaching, Newcastle, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside, Calderdale, North Lancashire, Luton Teaching, Havering and Hammersmith and Fulham.
These are the first practices promised for under-doctored areas by health minister Lord Ara Darzi in his interim NHS review published in October.
The practices will open extended hours and will operate what the DoH is calling extended practice boundaries.
The first practices are expected to open to patients in a year’s time and will be paid for from a £250 million access fund. This will also pay for 150 GP-led health centres.
The announcement was made today by health secretary Alan Johnson at the NHS Alliance conference in Manchester.
neil.durham@haymarket.com
View the announcement on the DoH website
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