A GP surgery says it plans to offer more appointments in the early hours after patients complained about struggling to get seen.

Patients are ‘queuing at 7am’ to get a doctor’s appointment at Shifa Surgery, Blackburn, according to a report by patient watchdog Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen.

Watchdogs also said that the appointment booking process at the surgery needs ‘urgent attention and amendment.

Now practice manager Sumayya Mayat has confirmed the practice plans to extend the number of days it opens at 7am for pre-booked appointments.

Currently the practice opens at 7am only on two pre-arranged days but this could be extended to five days or Saturday mornings.

Ms Mayat said: “However, the actual surgery cannot open its doors until 8am on other days, unless we have arranged it with NHS Property services. So for insurance reasons, patients do have to wait outside until staff arrive.

The surgery is based at Bangor Street Health & Resource Centre where Brookhouse Medical Centre is also housed.

The two surgeries merged in June this year, which Ms Mayat said has left the current waiting area too small to accommodate a lot of people.

She added: “We have applied to expand the building and fortunately, this has been approved by the CCG and we are awaiting approval from the council. This will improve our waiting area space.

“We are continuously trying to encourage patients to book appointments either over the phone or online rather than come in person. The practice has recently put up some more posters to promote this to patients. If, however, patients do turn up at the surgery in spite of this, they always get a same day appointment, which the surgery feels is quite an achievement in today’s NHS.

“We are also now using the care navigation system to help educate patients who do not necessarily have to come the practice to be seen, but this will take its time to bed in.”