AN EMERGENCY health care service is celebrating a major milestone.

Bury born and bred BARDOC has turned 21 – and is now one of Britain’s longest-serving local out-of-hours emergency health care providers.

It was formed by GP’s and the then Bury and Rochdale Health Authority in 1996 and is now a Community Benefits Society.

BARDOC serves 187,000 Bury patients by answering calls within 60 seconds and identifies which cases need routine help and which might be deemed life threatening emergencies.

Providing dental and health out-of-hours care and vital support within surgeries and hospitals, BARDOC kept 6,233 patients out of emergency and urgent care units in Bury, Bolton and Rochdale between December 2017 and May 2017.

All of which is a far cry from the days before BARDOC when, says founding director Dr Kumar Kotegaonkar MBE: “There had been no work and life balance for GPs and the doctor was cuffed to their visiting bag.”

Dr Kotegaonkar, now honorary president of BARDOC said: “The responsibility of 24-hour care used to be with the GP and smaller surgeries were always having to look round for cover.

"We needed the respite to be able to continue our commitment to our practices and make sure practising medicine was a joy.”

Initially, 70 doctors from Bury formed BARDOC and were soon joined by 35 more from Rochdale. The organisation has since become an inspiration for others across the country. Former Spring Lane GP Dr Kotegaonkar added: “By forming a cooperative, we had the best way of ensuring continuity of care to the community with the assurance of quality. The GP will treat every patient as if it is their patient.”

To celebrate its coming of age, BARDOC has had a special display cake created by renowned bakers Slattery, of Whitefield.