Hospital staff back fight to keep centre
STEFAN JAJECZNYK
HOSPITAL staff have written to NHS bosses in support of the campaign to save Accrington walkin centre from closure.
Members from Unison’s East Lancashire Health branch expressed their concerns about added pressures on the region’s other services after the closure.
Carla Ellis, assistant branch secretary, wrote to the East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on behalf of her members.
In her letter, she said: “We would like to advise you that we, Unison East Lancs Health branch, strongly oppose the closure of the Accrington Victoria walk-in centre.
“The closure of the walk-in centre can only result in a further
increase in numbers of visits to A&E and consequently further impact on the financial position of the Trust.
“We fail to see how cutting a valuable resource attended by 44,000 people in 2016 will help this situation.”
The letter says that vulnerable groups - elderly people, poorer families and children - will lose a vital service if the walk-in centre is to be axed.
It said: “It makes no sense to us that you are proposing to close a service in our area that has been shown to be needed in other areas, due to excessive waiting times in A&E.
“Those 44,000 people will need to be seen somewhere.”
The support from Unison has also helped the campaign smash through the 20,000-signature barrier this week.
Kimberley Whitehead, who has been leading it, is delighted with the scale of public backing but has called for people to keep the pressure up on the CCG.
She added: “We’ve practically got about 23,000 signatures which is brilliant really. We’re still collecting signatures and we are going to carry on trying to get the word out.”
Kimberley says that while campaigners are still collecting signatures, anyone opposed to the closure of the walk-in centre should also write to the CCG directly.
East Lancashire CCG has also quashed rumours that a private company is set to take over the management of the walk-in centre.
A spokesperson said: “The rumours about Virgin Care taking over the Accrington Health Access Centre are absolutely without foundation and not true.
“Discussions are still ongoing but we will provide an update as soon as possible.” THE figures for Accrington Victoria walk-in centre speak for themselves.
Around 23,000 people made it clear they oppose plans to close this vital local facility.
Figures from 2016 show around 44,000 people were using the hospital a year - more than 120 a day.But this is not just about numbers - it is about people. To take this muchused facility away from people is madness.
It has already received five stays of execution but needs to be saved permanently.
Hyndburn often finds itself at the thin end of the wedge when it comes to cuts, and the Observer stands squarely with our readers when we say: Hands off our walk-in centre.