More patients seen at extended-hours clinics in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes

Over 194,000 patients in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes have taken advantage of ‘enhanced access’ appointments at general practices, which offer health services to people outside conventional opening hours.

Figures published by NHS England revealed that patients in the area attended 194,744 appointments under the enhanced access scheme between April 2024 and March 2025, an increase of almost 36,000 (22.6%) on the previous year.

Whilst most practices operate core hours between 8.00am and 6.30pm, the enhanced access programme offers appointments between 6.30 and 8.00pm on weekdays, and between 9.00am and 5.00pm on Saturdays.  These appointments are offered by primary care networks, which are groupings of practices which operate on a collaborative basis: this means that patients may sometimes need to travel to another nearby practice, rather than the one where they are registered as a patient.

Amanda Flower, director of primary care and community integration at Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board, said:

“We know that enhanced access appointments are popular with people who work shifts or who travel long distances on a daily basis, for whom conventional practice hours may not always be convenient.

“Local practices have responded well to the challenge set by ministers in successive governments to offer appointments which fit in with the lifestyles and commitments of patients.  Our practices offer a mix of on-the-day, pre-booked appointments and routine follow-ups, and many also offer weekend vaccination clinics which are more convenient for those of working age.”

The latest figures follow the recent publication of data which showed that patients in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes made more than 6.2 million appointments in the year to 31 March 2025, an increase of 9.2% on the previous year.