A NEW patient appointment system has been introduced to cut waiting times.

Seriously ill patients can book an appointment by calling a main out-of-hours number which then operates through an machine-answering service.

Matthew Burke, general manager of the GP Urgent Care Service, said: "However, it is clearly important that emergencies need to be attended to immediately.

"Consequently, if an emergency case arrives at the Primary Care Centre it will be appropriately dealt with."

The telephone number to call for the new system is 0845 6090 669.