Patients in North Somerset can now book evening or weekend appointments to see a GP as the busy winter period approaches.

Health leaders in the area say they hope to ‘relieve pressure on the health system’ by providing people with out-of-hours appointments.

Dr Jonathan Hayes, chairman of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), hopes patients will benefit from the intiative.

He said: “We understand some patients struggle to get appointments during normal opening hours due to work and other constraints, so we want to be able to help with this and offer appointments out of hours.”

The move comes in response to new Government guidelines that say CCGs across the country have to improve their access to appointments for patients.

While appointments may not be with a patient’s own GP or practice, they will now be seen out of normal weekday working hours.