There could be a new health centre in Enfield to relieve pressure on Accident and Emergency (A&E) units in hospitals.

Enfield NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is supporting the idea for a new multi-purpose centre which could reduce the strain on North Middlesex Hospital's A&E department.

A study on a centre which could provide primary care is expected to start early next year.

Enfield Over 50s Forum president Monty Meth said: “The next couple of months will be crucial if we are going to get this project off the ground.

"The CCG governing body meeting at its penultimate meeting on December 18 learned that the CCG as a statutory body will be dissolved in March as it moves into the monster merger with CCGs in Barnet, Haringey, Islington and Camden.

“Equally worrying, we learned for the first time the funding allocation for the combined CCGs, serving 1.6 million people, has already been fixed until 2023/24.

“So almost certainly extra money will be needed either from the government or NHS England.”

The centre could be attached to the hospital and provide mental health expertise, advice on social care, diet, exercise, smoking and sexual health and to challenge health inequality.

He added: “There is a clear danger with all the emphasis being placed by the government on more funding going to the Midlands and the North, that Enfield will once again be forgotten.

“So the Forum will now be asking Enfield’s three newly elected MPs to get behind this health centre project and take it directly to Health and Social Care Minister, Matt Hancock.”