General Practice (GP) Out of Hours Service

As the organisation responsible for planning and buying your healthcare services, NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin (NHS STW) is about to decide who will provide the GP Out of Hours Service for the county for a period of up to five years.

The GP Out of Hours Service provides urgent medical care outside of General Practice core hours. As part of NHS STW’s commissioning responsibilities, and in line with its statutory and legal duties, there is now a need to re-procure the service.

Read our latest GP Out of Hours Service - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document here.

Click here to read our 'Addressing Misconceptions around the GP Out of Hours Procurement Process'.

Previous news articles shared by NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin:

Public Engagement

To inform this re-procurement process, a county-wide engagement exercise was launched in August 2024 asking residents to share their views on the service and how improvements could be made.

To help inform our procurement process, we asked:

  • What three things are most important to you when using the out of hours service? 
  • What would you say works well?
  • What do you think is missing or could be improved?

In response, nearly 600 surveys were completed from a wide range of the county’s residents, and a focus group session was held to explore some of the feedback in more detail.

All insight gathered has been considered in developing the final service specification and is recorded within the following engagement report.

Following this, a competitive process is now underway to understand what potential providers can offer and how well they can meet the needs of our patients and residents. Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak to us and share feedback, views and ideas.

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Page last updated 13 February 2025