THE opening of controversial new polyclinics could spell the end for traditional GP practices, the chair of NHS Waltham Forest has said.

Speaking at the newly opened Oliver Road Polyclinic in Leyton, chairman Cllr Afzal Akram said: “The days of the terraced house GP surgery are over.

“A number of our GPs are now in health centres with modern facilities.”

He added that it was not possible for smaller surgeries to provide access to all the services polyclinics offer, many of which would otherwise only be available in hospitals.

“Our main aim at the end of the day is making sure there’s access for all,” Cllr Akram said.

“We’re trying to make life easy for people and stop them getting ill, which will make resources go a lot further.”

The Oliver Road centre is one of the first polyclinics to open in London and is run by a consortium of GPs through Forest Community Health and Partnership of East London Co-operative (PELC).

Healthcare campaigners have voiced concerns that the clinic could restrict GP access but Dr Chris Britt, of PELC, said the aim was not to draw people away from their local practices.

He said: “We’re not encouraging people to register [at Oliver Road]. We’re taking on people who are not registered but if somebody wants to move here, we will let them.”

The clinic includes the Leyton Healthcare Medical Practice, which already has 11,000 patients registered, and more than 50 others have registered in its first week as a polyclinic.

It also offers a walk-in service for unregistered patients, which is aimed at benefiting the borough’s mobile population, NHS Waltham Forest chief executive Sally Gorham said.

“There’s a huge turn-over of people living here. If they’ve just moved to the area, they might not register until there’s something wrong with them,” she said.

“People might be here for a very short period of time. When they feel ill, we don’t want them to use A&E - we want to keep people out of hospital as far as possible.”