A SOUTHAMPTON MP has called on Hampshire health chiefs to pay "their share" of funding for a threatened walk-in centre to keep it open.

As previously reported, new plans to close the Bitterne walk-in centre resurfaced earlier this year with Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) saying it needs to prioritise funding elsewhere.

The consultation on the closure of the facility is ongoing, but it has been revealed that more than a third of the patients using it come from outside Southampton.

However the health body covering the parts of Eastleigh borough where they come from - West Hampshire CCG - does not contribute to its running and is now facing pressure to provide funding to keep it open.

It costs about £1.3m a year to run the centre, and Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith says that as 34 per cent of patients are registered with GPs outside of the city Hampshire should contribute £480,000 a year to its running - an amount he says would provide most of the funding needed to keep it open.

He said: "It is, in my opinion irrelevant where the CCG signpost their patients, while the centre is open and their patients access it they should contribute.

"If they were to pay for what their patients use the service stay open and we in Southampton could invest in additional community nursing.

"If the centre closes patients from the surrounding areas will suffer as much as my constituents.

"I would advise all patients who use the centre to apply pressure to the West Hampshire CCG to make funds available for their patients."

Dr Sarah Schofield, the chairman of West Hampshire said the body “does not commission any walk-in services in our area or surrounding areas, and so we will not be involved in making the final decision on the future of the walk-in service in Bitterne, Southampton."

She said residents who are feeling unwell are urged to contact 111 and speak to their local GP.

Encouraging West Hampshire residents to take part in Southampton CCG's consultation, she continued: "The most common conditions seen at the walk-in service in Bitterne are coughs and sore throats, which can be more effectively treated by pharmacists who are more accessible for our local community.

“Because we recognise that some of our patients still use the Bitterne walk-in service, we will be holding a public meeting in Hedge End in August. This public meeting is an opportunity for people living in our area, especially in Eastleigh and the southern parishes, to discuss how they access local health services when they are feeling unwell and the issues they face."

A spokesman for Southampton CCG said some services would be duplicated if the centre remained open, and that some services were best offered through community nursing.

The public meeting takes place at 6.30pm on August 13 at the Drummond Centre in Drummond Road, Hedge End.