Boots, the health and beauty retailer, is expected to host the opening of Britain’s first high street GP surgery next month after a trial deal with Bournemouth and Poole NHS Trust.

It is expected to be closely watched by other NHS trusts, which are being encouraged by the Government to pursue similar tactics. J Sainsbury, the supermarket, has also been in talks with the NHS about hosting GP surgeries.

Boots, which has run a nurse-operated walk-in health centre at a store in Birmingham for several years, is said to be considering healthcare centres at about a dozen of its larger outlets.

The move is in response to a health White Paper, which suggested high street GP surgeries as a way to make health services easier to access and more responsive to patients’ needs.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “We need to extend access to GP services, and use of private sector premises, including chemists, is just one of the ways that this could be done.”

The retailer already runs some diagnostic tests for sexually transmitted diseases for the NHS in more than 200 stores.

Debbie Fleming, chief executive of Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust, said: “We know from our patient and public involvement surveys that people want to see a full range of services provided in local areas where they have good access to public transport.”

A Boots spokesman said: “It will remind people that their pharmacist can do a lot more than dispense medicines.”

The initial range of services provided will include blood tests, physiotherapy, acute back pain services and ultrasound. The trust is considering extending these services to counselling, child health and complementary therapies.

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