A NEW health centre has opened in Crayford offering access to a GP seven days a week, every day of the year.

The Bexley North Health Centre, based in a converted and extended shop in Crayford High Street, is owned and run by South East London Doctors' Co-operative (SELDOC) an out-of-hours doctors’ service based in Dulwich.

It won the bidding process to provide its Crayford services under contract to Bexley Care Trust.

Neither of the two existing GP practices in the town is involved in the venture, with the medical staff recruited by and contracted to SELDOC.

The centre guarantees to have at least one GP available during opening hours, but its care trust contract states SELDOC will provide as many GPs as are required for the number of registered patients.

SELDOC is currently running a recruitment campaign for more GPs.

Centre opening hours are from 7am to 8pm on Monday to Friday, and 8am until 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.

GPs are available for both booked appointments and walk-in patients.

In addition the centre also offers clinics for immunisations, vaccinations for adults and children and cervical screening.

Bexley Care Trust says residents will be invited to give their views on how the centre is run and developed, through both group and individual consultations.

The centre has been developed under a Government scheme which requires all primary care trusts in England to have a GP-led health centre.

Care trust chairman Barbara Scott said: “This is part of our wider strategy to deliver more accessible services with a doctor or health professional of choice.”

She added: “Over the next few years, significant moves are planned to deliver more improved services elsewhere in the borough.”

The care trust says the new centre does not interfere with plans to open a new health centre as part of the Crayford town hall redevelopment scheme, in nearby Crayford Road.

A spokesman said: “The proposed development at the town hall is at a very early stage and the health component has not been fully detailed and is not planned to open for a number of years.”