A specialist health service for asylum seekers is being set up in Derby to relieve the pressure on other surgeries.

Dr Paul Nathan of the Central Derby Primary Care Trust, said local general practitioners want a centralised service so they can concentrate on their own patients.

"There is no formal reception for asylum seekers, so they are often not aware of what medical services are available," he said.

Language demands

He said consultations for the newly arrived patients can be quite time consuming as doctors must find out their medical history, medication and immunisation.

"Sometimes you need to find interpreters or use Language Line to deal with the patients," he said.

"The new service will take the pressure off our existing GPs and will be designed to deal with the language and health needs of the asylum seekers."

He said the government has allocated money for the project so the new service will not detract from local health system.

Earlier this year, a surgery in the city that had been earmarked for use by asylum seekers was forced to close because no doctors wanted to work there.

The Sai Medical Centre in Rose Hill in Derby closed in October and its 1,700 patients were allocated to new GPs.