The Extended Access service will provide additional routine and urgent capacity for the Rotherham population. This will be outside of core hours after 6:30 p.m. (Monday to Friday) and on Saturdays and Sundays, providing sessions during the evenings and weekends over 52 weeks of the year and including bank holidays.

The GP Forward View sets out an obligation to improve access to primary care services for the whole population. When applied to Rotherham the requirement is to deliver a minimum of 132 hours per week (Monday to Sunday), 365 days of the year.

The Extended Access service will provide additional routine and urgent capacity for the Rotherham population. This will be outside of core hours after 6:30 p.m. (Monday to Friday) and on Saturdays and Sundays, providing sessions during the evenings and weekends over 52 weeks of the year and including bank holidays. The Contractor is required to provide an analysis of days when there is greatest activity and map the extended access to these times of demand.

The aim of this is to enable patients to receive a service outside of normal practice working hours along with supporting high activity on Mondays and also to deflect from the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre.

The key objective is to ensure improved access, providing increased flexibility for patients to receive routine care outside of the normal working week.