THOUSANDS of people across Southampton will soon be able to see GPs during evenings and over weekends after a £3m Government cash boost.

However, coalition ministers have been accused of using the announcement as a pre-election “sweetener”, while it has raised fresh fears over the future of a city walk-in centre.

Conservative Health Minister Jane Ellison visited the city’s Bitterne Surgery yesterday to formally announce £3m of funding for Southampton.

The New Forest will also benefit from £814,000 to improve access to GPs.

The funding comes from a pot of £46.6m from fines collected from banks that broke foreign exchange rules and will be spent on improving GP access and modernising surgeries across the UK next year.

Southampton Primary Care Ltd, a new federation of GPs in the city, had handed in a bid for funding to extend the hours people can see their doctors.

And their success means funding for a pilot has been given the green light.

It means six new “primary care sites” – Bitterne Surgery will be one, while the others are yet to be confirmed – will soon be open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.

The six sites will cover six areas of the city and 269,000 residents in total, while there will be a particular focus on helping the elderly and people with mental illnesses.

It will run alongside the Better Care initiative, a project revealed in the Daily Echo last year that will see health and social care organisations working more closely together to spend £130m of Government funds every year.

Announcing the funding, Conservative Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, pictured below, said: “The NHS is moving with the times. By keeping in touch with how people live their lives, far more NHS services, tests and treatments will be offered closer to people’s homes at times that suit them.

Daily Echo: Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review of patient case notes to establish how many cases are avoidable

“GPs have always been the foundation of the NHS and are at the centre of our plans to move more care in to the community. We are supporting them to work innovatively to deliver 21st century patient care.”

And Liberal Democrat Care Minister Norman Lamb added: “We want to have a fairer society, and that means better care, closer to home for everyone. Today’s announcement helps patients get easier access to their GP.

“Our investment in out of hospital care will not only improve and join up services where people live but also keep people healthier in the community for longer.”

However while the funding was welcomed, other candidates have raised fears that it throws the future of the Bitterne Walk-In Centre into fresh doubt.

Daily Echo:

The Clinical Care and Commissioning Group had proposed shutting the centre for six months, until a public outcry led them to reverse their decision.

Public consultation on its future was delayed until after the General Election.

Reacting to the announcement, Labour’s candidate for Romsey and Southampton North, Darren Paffey, said: “This is very necessary given the threat to the walk-in centre we have had.

“Out of hours services are not in a good place and therefore need this investment.”

“But the Bitterne Walk-In Centre is open until 10.30pm, so if they remove that then they are dressing up a reduction in services as an improvement.”

John Spottiswoode, Green Party candidate for Southampton Itchen, pictured below, said: “The amount of people going to Accident and Emergency is a key issue so if people can to GP surgeries instead then that would be much better.

Daily Echo:

“But they also need to sort out the other side of it, the social care side.

“I think it’s typical they are giving away funding before the election having cut away things over the last few years.

“I think it’s cynical to sweeten ahead of the election and when the cuts might be back in a considerable way after the election.”

UKIP’s Itchen candidate, Kim Rose, said: “Of course it’s good to get funding for GP surgeries to be open later, as long as it isn’t part of them turning around and saying we will get rid of the Bitterne Walk-In Centre.

“I hope that isn’t the case.”

Yesterday a spokesman for the CCG said: “The position on the Bitterne Walk in Centre remains as it was in November last year, at the meeting of the city’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel (HOSP), when the CCG agreed to continue discussions with local people and start a consultation after the General Election.”