A GP SERVICE has expressed frustration at being forced to vacate a building at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Diane Ridgway, chief executive of East Lancashire Medical Services, said its out-of-hours GP service was told to move out of a former primary care centre at the hospital in February last year, as commissioners said hospital executives wanted to use it as their headquarters.

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But the hospital’s executive team has since changed, and they are now hoping to move out of the small single-storey building, which is opposite KFC on Haslingden Road, and move back to the main hospital.

Mrs Ridgway said this was “disappointing”, given that ELMS had been happy with the premises before being told to move.

The service operated from rooms next to the emergency department for much of last year, but has now moved to the company’s main base in Accrington Road, with one doctor still based within the urgent care centre.

Gillian Simpson, director of operations at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Blackburn, said: “The GP out-of-hours service being located in the main hospital building has improved communication and liaison between the trust and the service.

“There is now a GP based within the urgent care centre, an arrangement which benefits patients and eases pressure on our emergency department.

“Looking to the future, it is important that the trust board is at the heart of our services, close and visible to clinical staff and patients, and when the opportunity arises to move the Trust HQ back to within the hospital, we hope to do so.”