Walk-in centre gets stay of execution
THE Accrington Victoria Hospital walkin centre will now stay open until at least September 2017 after health bosses approved yet another six-month stay of execution.
The GP centre was controversially due to close at the end of this month to be replaced with new ‘health hubs’ run by a consortium of GPs.
However, the East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said the centre will now stay open until at least September 30, 2017, so that the final plans can be put in place for the new service.
The Accrington Observer and Hyndburn council launched a campaign in 2013 to save the facility from closure with nearly 6,000 people signing a petition.
The CCG said the new model, being developed by a consortium of GP Provider Organisations, will offer patients extended access to GP services until 8pm on weekday evenings and some provision on the weekend by ringing their own GP practice or the NHS 111 service.
The new ‘health hubs’ will be launched first in Hyndburn in Autumn 2017 before being rolled out across other areas of East Lancashire.
Hyndburn council leader Miles Parkinson is delighted at the extension.
He said: “We are all aware of the importance of the walk-in centre, especially with the diffi- culty of getting an appointment at doctor’s surgeries. People really use the service and it’s important it’s been extended. There’s great support for the centre and Accrington Victoria in general.”
In 2014, the CCG agreed to initially extend the contracts until September 2015, and this is now the fourth extension since.
Sharon Martin, director of performance and delivery at NHS East Lancashire CCG, said: “We have been working with patients to develop and improve access to GP services in East Lancashire since 2014/15 when we co-produced our principles for access to GP services with patients.
“This culminated in our large 12-week consultation in the summer where we received over 2,000 responses, which were, in the majority, in favour of our proposal to introduce extended GP access across the area. Now, thanks to the dedication and hard work of our GP Provider Organisations we are planning to launch the new Hyndburn model of GP access by Autumn 2017. In the meantime, we have agreed to extend the contract to continue the Walk in Centre service until September 2017.”