Welcome to the Mastercall Web Site

Since the formation of the NHS, GP's had responsibility for the care of their registered patients 24 hours a day every day of the year. This level of commitment was not acceptable to most doctors and was becoming a disincentive to recruitment. At the same time, commercial deputising services flourished despite much anxiety about the quality of care offered by some of them.

In the mid-1990's the GP Co-operative movement began to progress, slowly at first. Initially these were large rotas which evolved in different ways in different parts of the country. Locally 'Mandoc' in Central Manchester, 'GPEC' in South Manchester and the Stockport Doctors Co-operative began to provide services. However, none was large enough to have remained viable in the longer term and they merged in 2003/4 to form Mastercall OOH Services.

In 2004 when responsibility for providing cover outside GP surgery opening hours transferred to Primary Care Trusts, Mastercall was commissioned to provide services to close to a million people. This has been a huge and exciting challenge and one that Mastercall has risen to.

Although a not for profit social enterprise, Mastercall considers itself to be a part of the NHS family and aims to be central to the provision of integrated urgent care services. If future innovations are remotely as fundamental as the changes of the last decade, only the very unwise would try to predict the shape and functions of Mastercall ten years hence.

Dr. David Bostock Chairman