A hospital trust has been awarded a 15-year contract to run a town’s GP services after a successful first year trial.

Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will provide services for some 20,000 people.

It took over from a local practice last year after it was unable to recruit doctors.

It has since hired five GPs and used hospital staff to run an ultrasound clinic in local surgeries. It also offers early morning, evening and weekend GP appointments, it said.

The trust is set to expand its role in primary care – as it has now taken over primary care for 11,500 people in the Clay Cross area of Derbyshire. This could become a permanent arrangement following the Chesterfield arrangement, trust officials said.

Dr Gail Collins, medical director of Royal Primary Care, said: “We are pleased to be able to sustain these services for local people at a time when fewer doctors are choosing to train in primary care medicine and go into partnerships.

“We need to be able to offer new solutions – and over the past year it is clear that working for the Trust, as part of Royal Primary Care, can be a successful and viable approach.”