A new health centre in Battersea will open next year, offering GP services 12 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week.

Scheduled to open in Spring 2010, NHS Wandsworth said it would make it easier to see a GP and receive treatment for minor illnesses and injuries.

With opening hours from 8am to 8pm seven days a week, and capacity for 6,000 new patients, the new centre allows residents to continue to see their local GP but get access to doctors outside of normal practice hours. Wandsworth NHS announced it had reached agreement with Care UK, supported by AT Medics, to run the centre in Grant Road for five years.

The centre, which is being funded by NHS Wandsworth, will cost £1.7 million a year to run.

Ann Radmore, chief executive of NHS Wandsworth, said: “The quality of applications submitted by bidders was exceptionally high.

"The bid submitted by Care UK, supported by AT Medics, clearly demonstrated that they were the best qualified to deliver the high quality services we want for our residents.”

Signing the contract Dr Mark Hunt, Care UK’s managing director of primary care, said 93 per cent of patients rated its walk-in centres as either good or excellent.

He said: ”We are confident that the care at this new centre will be of a similarly high standard, and we are looking forward to continuing to work in partnership with NHS Wandsworth to deliver high quality care.”

Dr Tarek Radwan, AT Medics clinical director and clinical lead for the project, said: “I've lived in Tooting for 15 years and I trained at St George's, so Wandsworth has always been close to my heart and it means that I have a very good knowledge of the local area and the health needs of local people.”

A Wandsworth NHS spokesman added the new service would “strengthen NHS Wandsworth’s drive to tackle healthcare inequalities and increase GP service provision as part of an on-going investment in primary care development for the Battersea and North Wandsworth area.”

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