A library in Oldham is helping patients of a local GP surgery with digital support to help them to book GP appointments, order prescriptions and even borrow devices.

Fitton Hill Library is offering digital and health support to local residents and patients in partnership with Hill Top Surgery on Fircroft Road.

The initiative comes as part of a new one-year NHS Health Education England pilot scheme which aims to help people utilise online services to access health care and support.

Patients of the practice can now receive assistance from library staff to order repeat prescriptions, set up medical accounts, access health information and book GP appointments.

The library is also allowing people to borrow digital devices for free to support residents in getting online from home with free data packages available to use.

Visitors can even use a private room in the library to attend any online medical appointments that they may have.

The support comes as patients across the borough report enormous difficulty in booking a GP appointment at their local practice.

It has been claimed that the move to digitalised booking systems risks leaving vulnerable and elderly people to fall through the cracks.

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Councillor Elaine Taylor, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, said: “At a time when many of our general health-related tasks can be facilitated online, this support is incredibly valuable to local residents, and this will help people to become more digitally confident.”

Fitton Hill Library is open Tuesdays, 2–5pm, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 2–7pm and Fridays and Saturdays, 9.30am–1pm.

This article was written by Olivia Bridge. Liv is a reporter for The Oldham Times and takes an interest in stories concerning health, cost-of-living and the community.

To contact her, email olivia.bridge@newsquest.co.uk or follow @Livbridge on Twitter.