GP practices in some areas of England are offering weekend appointments in an attempt to ease the widely reported problems in accident and emergency (A&E) units.
An additional 360 appointments have been made available at some family doctors in an area of West Sussex, the BBC reports.
doctors in Chichester, Adur, Arun, Worthing, Chanctonbury and Regis are all working extra hours in addition to the present out-of-hours service.
Additional appointments were also made available last weekend (3rd and 4th January) as well as New Year’s Day.
The NHS Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (also known as the CCG) advised patients to make use of the NHS 111 number if they needed to see a doctor.
A spokeswoman for the CCG, which operates 54 GP practices in the area, said that these new measures had proved successful, but made it clear that patients need to be making an appointment to see their GP.