A NON-PROFIT group of doctors have backed ambitious plans for a 24-hour GP surgery to be built outside the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

The bid has been submitted by Blackburn’s newly-formed “federation” of GPs, called Local Primary Care, and proposes to build an Acute Primary Care Centre near the helipad, close to the emergency department entrance.

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The development, which would be the first of its kind in the country, could transform the fortunes of the hospital’s emergency department, which has been struggling for several years with the sheer volume of patients turning up at the door.

The bid has been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund and is currently being considered.

Diane Ridgeway, chief executive of East Lancashire Medical Services, which has provided out-of-hours GP care in the area for the last two decades, said: “The bid had to be led by GPs and we needed to get something in quickly.

“We helped write it and if it comes off it’ll be really good for patients.

“We are absolutely supportive of what’s being proposed.”

The centre, which would be staffed on a rota basis by all 90 GPs in the borough, as well as nurses and support workers, would cater for minor injuries and ailments, such as an infected wound, sprains or minor burns.

“It would not serve patients well who need help with chronic or long-term conditions.”