A SOUTHAMPTON walk in centre is to close - with fears it could be a permanent move.
Health chiefs revealed they want to shut Bitterne walk-in centre for six months from December this year.
It is part of a plan to support GPs in the city by using the walk-in centre's nurses at practices and for community care.
Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group and Solent NHS Foundation Trust are planning a pilot scheme to use the centre's 12 nurses to help relieve pressure on GPs in winter and provide an alternative to Southampton General Hospital's emergency department.
They say it is not a cost saving project as the £1.4m required to fund the centre for six months will be the budget for the new scheme.
A spokesman for the CCG said the centre was under used with the majority of patients coming from the immediate area complaining of colds and coughs - which can be dealt with at chemists and via the NHS 111 phone service.
The spokesman said that with winter approaching resources needed to be deployed to where they were most needed.
“We want to boost our hospital care by deploying more nurses in the community who can add extra support for vulnerable patients this winter.”
Final decisions on where the nurses will be based have not yet been made.
But if the pilot project is successful, it is likely the centre, based at the Bitterne Health Centre in Commercial Street, Southampton, will close for good.
As reported by the Daily Echo, the centre faced closure in 2010 after a review into unscheduled care in the city prompting a campaign to keep it open.
Nick Chaffey, of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, said the service was too vital to lose. “I am staggered they are event thinking about doing this. It just shows the profound crisis the NHS is in at the moment.
“When they cut the hours down to just evenings and weekends it was the start of a slippery slope and if this closes temporarily I think that is the end.”
Cllr Royston Smith said: “This should not be allowed to happen under any circumstance. If they shut that centre it is never opening again.”
Cllr Royston Smith
Council leader Simon Letts said he could see what the CCG and Solent were aiming to do but said the council would look at the plans closely.
“If we get a better service then I can see their case but I would like a better look at their evidence first.”
Cllr Simon Letts
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