Q: When is a Walk-in Centre not a Walk-in Centre?
A: When it is replaced by a ‘Primary Care Community Hub’ By Emma Harwood
Campaigners battling to prevent the closure of the Station Plaza Walk-in GP centre have vowed to keep up the pressure on Hastings and Rother Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), after it announced that a decision will be made by late Autumn.
Over 4000 people have signed a petition demanding to keep the service – currently open seven days a week for 12 hours a day and allowing patients to see a GP without an appointment, regardless of whether they are registered – in its town centre location.
The financially-challenged CCG is considering moving it close to the accident and emergency department at The Conquest Hospital on The Ridge, claiming this is due to national requirements to provide newly standardised walk-in and pre-booked GP services called Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs).
NHS England wants all UTCs, which will be manned by GPs providing non-emergency same- day care for patients, to be in place by December 2019.
But the announcement has provoked outrage among residents from across the borough who say moving it to the Ridge from its convenient-to-reach, visible location near the station and the college, would effectively remove it from the most vulnerable patients who need it most, such as the elderly, disabled, and homeless, as well as foreign language students and tourists.
Travelling from the town centre to The Conquest and back by cab costs around £14, while getting there by bus takes between 30– 45 minutes in normal traffic and costs approximately £6 for an adult and two children.
GP shortages in the town, with most surgeries oversubscribed as well as high levels of deprivation, have also been cited as further reasons to keep it in the town centre.
“So many people have told me they have used the walk in service even if they have a GP because they can’t get an appointment for two weeks.” said Erica Smith, lead petitioner of the Labour-led campaign which blames Conservative austerity cuts for the plan and has now launched a Facebook page – Save the Walk-In Service Hastings, (SWISH).
Following a demonstration last Saturday –one of a string of recent protests – which drew a crowd of around 70 people of all ages and featured Hastings-born singer Martin Beeson – a further demonstration is planned for 1pm on Saturday 1st December.
Among those protesting was homeless Asperger’s sufferer Antony Masters who said:
“These are vital services that need to be retained. Rough sleepers have a hard time as it is, you can’t always get into GP centres, there is a lot of discrimination against them by the health system. A lot of GPs don’t want them on their books, so walk-in services like this are vital, because for example, if you need medication, you’ve got an addiction or if you do get beaten up by unfriendly members of the public, you can get help.”
“The government is saying don’t waste time in A&E for minor things.. well, that’s what these places are for.”
Campaigner Ian Stewart, who suffered a stroke two years ago, stressed the importance of keeping the service in its central, easy to reach location. Mr. Stewart, who had been unaware of his condition at the time, said he’d ‘staggered up’ to the Station Plaza centre from Hastings Works and had been able to see a GP, who diagnosed him and sent him straight to Eastbourne Hospital in an ambulance.
“The whole point of it being a walk-in centre is that it is a walk- in centre, it’s where the station is, it’s where the buses stop, it’s where there’s a need.” said another speaker.
Predominantly Pre-booked services
But the CCG –which was put into financial special measures in March and needs to save £18 million this financial year – announced last Thursday it had revisited its original proposals and expected to have made a decision by late Autumn.
“Following a range of feedback from local people and key stakeholders we have developed a more-in depth understanding of the people who currently access our urgent primary care services.”
And one option it said it was now considering was replacing the walk-in centre with a ‘Primary Care Community Hub ‘which would offer:
“community services that meet a primary care need with the expectation that these will be accessed predominantly through a pre-booked appointment route, although it is recognised that in some areas walk-in (non-urgent-access) may be required e.g. for vulnerable patients.”
However, a CCG spokesperson was unable to tell HIP whether this new community service would be provided by GPs and whether it would have the same opening times as the current walk-in service.
Ms. Smith, who handed a petition to Dr. Paul Warden, the Chair of the CCG, last Thursday, said this announcement had taken campaigners by surprise.
“Whilst I would acknowledge that the walk-in centre is always busy, it would be ridiculous to move it or change it to make it an appointment-only service because it’s actually the primary way that many people in this town are accessing their health needs.”
“When we presented our 4,000 strong petition to the CCG, the representatives we met seemed unsure about the plans for the UTC and acknowledged that the walk-in centre is doing a great service in the town centre. But until we have something in writing we don’t know what their plans are. That’s why it is so important to keep campaigning to maintain a high level of service. In a town with significantly fewer than average GPs, we don’t want the Walk-in Centre to be replaced by an appointment-only service. There will always be times when we need same-day access to primary health care.”
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