A GP practice is Bury has spoken about how it may be able to help to people struggling to get doctors appointments.

Hilton House Medical Practice on Irwell Street in Bury opened its doors in May 2022 and is a private GP practice.

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Earlier last year it was revealed that GPs in England would be required to offer certain healthcare alternatives including referring patients  further or to private practices in an attempt to reduce the NHS backlog.

Patricia Fitzpatrick, Registered Manager for Hilton House Medical said: “The NHS services in this area are suffering, practices are under such demand and the service that we offer is different to an NHS GP practice.”

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The practice offers longer appointments and patients can discuss a number of issues at once.

Patricia added: “Services in Bury could be a lot better and the way we see it is, yes you have to pay, but the service we offer is better.

“I’ve worked in NHS practices previously, and now I work here and there are less constraints on us here than in NHS practices.”

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Hilton House benefit patients by only offering face-to-face appointments, unlike NHS practices that offer telephone appointments which don’t always pick up everything.

Anyone can book an appointment at Hilton House without having to de-register with their NHS GP, however, they do also offer memberships.

Patricia said: “The main challenge is that people aren’t aware that there is an alternative and patients just aren’t happy with the services being offered so I think we’ll become more popular in the coming years.”