East Lancashire Medical Services Ltd is a not for profit social enterprise covering a geographical area of 1100sq km and a population of 530,000, there are 3 large conurbations, and the rest are small villages and the majority of the area is rural. We have over 130 local doctors and nurse practitioners manning the rota’s, and have a focus on education believing that retention of good staff depends on their access to strong leadership, innovative support, and access to on-going relevant education.

The Service has provided GP cover since 1993. Winning a contract to deliver urgent care services for Pennine Lancashire’s 2 PCTs in 2007; we take over 130,000 calls a year which includes District Nursing and Dental emergencies. We deliver care from 9 sites, and cover 102 GMS/PMS practices with a predominant EMIS system usage.

The call handling and triage is presently provided by NHSDirect as an enhanced service and follows from the organisation being one of the few origin exemplar partners who carried on after the GP opt out.

ELMS provide:

Out of Hours cover from 7 sites in addition to Sub contracted GP services in East Lancashire Hospital Trusts two Urgent Care Centres – Our ELMS GP being the sole doctor each night leading the integrated team until 8am in Burnley Urgent Care Centre.
Health Access GP Services and a Walk in Service in Hyndburn
Protected Time Cover for GP Surgeries
Resilience for the Health Economy during seasonal pressures.

Additionally ELMs provide the following services:

Running GPwSI clinics in Ophthalmology and Dermatology
Call Handling for District Nurse Services
Dental Call Handling and Access Allocation Service.

www.eastlancsmedicalservices.co.uk