Future of popular walk-in surgeries in doubt

Opening hours at the walk-in centres in Halifax and Todmorden were cut in April.

Now health chiefs have confirmed they plan to review the future of walk-in services in Calderdale as part of a broader review of urgent care after the private firm running the service decided to terminate its contract from January.

The move follows the axing of the walk-up services in Barnsley due to soaring costs after doctors saw four times the numbers of people expected.

Another centre in Dewsbury has seen its hours cut and a public consultation is under way on plans to reduce opening hours of Bradford’s walk-in centre. All were opened in a flagship Labour programme to give patients immediate access to GP appointments.

The Park Community Practice in Halifax and the Calder Community Practice in Todmorden were due to see 650 walk-in patients a month but in practice have treated more than double that.

NHS Calderdale medical director Matt Walsh said the extra demand was “unaffordable”.

Walk-in services were designed for patients with minor ailments to take pressure off A&E and for those with urgent problems who were unable to get a quick appointment with their own practice who could then register with the surgery for future appointments.

“This has not proven to be the case. The level of demand is much higher than we commissioned. The majority of patients using the walk-in are doing so with non-urgent conditions in core hours when they could be seen by their own GP practice,” he said.

“There has been no reduction in A&E attendances and patients have not chosen to register with the practice.”

A spokesman for Care UK, which runs walk-in services in Calder- dale, said it had reviewed the service and found the contract did not reflect patterns of demand.

“Following discussions with NHS Calderdale, we have taken a mutual decision that the contract be re-tendered at the end of January 2012 so that the service going forward is better aligned to the requirements of patients locally,” he added. Both centres close earlier and no longer open between noon and 3pm for GP appointments, while the Todmorden surgery is closed on Sundays.