Residents urgedtomake use of centre

THE PROSPECT of a walk-in centre for Hinckley looks unlikely following the transfer of services from a Nuneaton council estate to the town’s main hospital.

As healthcare in the borough faces a major upheaval with the potential closure of the central cottage hospital, many have called for the development of an emergency treatment unit.

However the closure of the walk-in centre at Camp Hill, Nuneaton, with services instead provided at George Eliot Hospital makes the move a distant possibility.

The relocation does mean the centre, which is aimed at people with ailments requiring more than a GP appointment but not casualty care, is closer to Hinckley.

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s health and well-being champion, Councillor Amanda Wright (Con, Burbage Sketchley and Stretton) is urging people to make use of the centre and is pragmatic about the future of Hinckley.

A public consultation is due to start soon on changes to health provision in Hinckley which looks set to see the closure of the old cottage hospital in Mount Road,

Health chiefs say the building is not fit for purpose and cannot accommodate modern methods of anaesthesia and cancer screening.

A protest campaign, aimed at saving Mount Road, has amassed thousands of signatures.

Cllr Wright has been active in engaging with West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the body which plans and provides health services in the borough, over its plans to revamp local services, including closing Mount Road.

She said the CCG was conducting a full costings exercise to see if Mount Road could be modernised but felt people ought to take a pragmatic approach to the re-ordering of services, adding: “We do have to have some realism here though. At the moment I understand services in that the CCG is working up the cost that it would take to upgrade the Mount Road hospital building. This demonstrates that the CCG is looking at all the possibilities including retention of the Mount Road site, however, at the end of the day and pragmatically it does seem as if the people of Hinckley and Bosworth will likely have to make a choice .

“Keeping an older facility may require a disproportionate amount of money spent on it to bring it up the expected standards of the 21st Century.

“The need for an urgent care or walk-in centre in Hinckley has also been raised a lot with myself over the last few months but I think there is also a recognition by local people I speak with that we now have a brand new facility sited only seven miles away in Nuneaton.

“As this is so near, the chances of being able to demonstrate a need for another such centre in Hinckley seems slim.

“I would urge anyone needing urgent care services to utilise the brand new facility at George Elliot.”