Health and beauty giant Boots has confirmed its plans to increase the number of in-store health clinics it offers in partnership with the NHS.

Boots runs 20 in-store NHS clinics across the country, including 14 doctors' surgeries, a blood donor clinic in Poole and aneye clinic in Watford and said it wanted to increase this offering to "meet customer needs in the local community".

Boots could not confirm how many new clinics it would open, but had previously set out its intention to boost its in-store GP surgeries "over the coming years" in the company's 2010-11 annual report.

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	The announcement came as Boots officially opened its second in-store dental surgery in Market Street, Manchester on January 27. The Ocean Dental surgery will offer a "full range of NHS services, modern facilities and a private treatment room" and is expected to serve 9,000 patients in the local area.

Boots told C+D that the surgery had been "well received" by patients since its soft launch in October.

"There are around 12,000 families in the local Manchester community who do not have access to NHS dental services," a company spokesperson explained. "Boots UK is committed to working with local healthcare organisations to provide healthcare services in the local community."

The dental surgery will run alongside the Manchester store's existing services, including Boots Opticians, David Omerod Hearingcare and a GP walk-in centre.

The launch came after Lloydspharmacy opened its second health village in Thurrock in November, which includes a private dental clinic. At the time, Lloydspharmacy managing director Tony Page said local communities had "welcomed" the introduction of new in-store services.

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