WORCESTER has a new, “improved” out-of-hours GPs’ patients service with more staff, says the private provider which has taken over running it.

Take Care Now (TCN) says the service has a larger team of well trained clinicians to develop and improve the service which is based at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.

TCN was selected by the Worcestershire Primary Care Trust earlier this year to run the service, formerly managed by the PCT itself.

TCN beat of competition for the contract from other bidders during the tendering process.

Since then, TCN Ltd has been providing the primary care out of hours service for Worcester which is open to 500,000 people across Worcestershire.

Dr James Kennedy, Medical Director of TCN said all the old staff had been retained and 30 more brought in.

The out-of-hours service will have more than 50 “highly trained” professionals operating the Worcestershire service, from six local Primary Care centres of which Worcester is one.

More than 70 per cent of them live in the county which TCN hopes will provide more valuable local knowledge.

There will be a local management team and a local lead doctor and nurse to run it.

The service provides medical support for those medical issues that cannot wait until a GP surgery is open.

Trained doctors and nurses will diagnose, treat or refer patients at the six local centres – Worcester, Kidderminster, Tenbury Wells, Redditch, Evesham, and Malvern.

The six primary care centres are not ‘walk in centres’ and the PCT stressed that patients will obtain the best service, and wait for the least time, if they call in advance.

However, TCN says that patients will not be turned away if they do turn up without calling in advance.

The new out of hours telephone number is 0300 123 3211.