Protestors have today launched an eleventh hour bid to save Southampton’s Bitterne Walk-In Centre from closure.

Angry Demonstrators gathered outside the Commercial Street facility waving banners and placards and chanting though megaphones.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, city health bosses brought the axe down on the facility earlier this month when they voted to close it at the end of the month.

Now -with two weeks to go - demonstrators are demanding local MPs and council chiefs to refer the decision to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to help save it.

They are urging people to sign a second petition demanding it is kept open.

The centre based at Bitterne Health Centre in Commercial Street will close on October 31.

The City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has defended the decision, saying it is in a financially “tight situation” and that the resources spent on the centre must be used to fund other forms of community health care.

But around 30 demonstrators attending today's protest say it is a vital lifeline serving the eastern side of the city which must be protected.

Daily Echo:

They held banners reading "Keep Bitterne Walk-In Centre We Need It" and "Save Bitterne Walk-In".

Nick Chaffey, from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), organised the event and has criticised both Conservative Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith and the Labour-run council leader Cllr Simon Letts over the closure.

Mr Chaffey told the Echo: "It's vital that it stays. We are here to call on Mr Smith and Cllr Letts to take this decision and refer it to Mr Hunt to prevent the closure from taking place. The government needs to find these facilities so people who pay their taxes can get the facilities they need. This centre is a lifeline and it needs to stay open."

He said 500 people have already signed the petition in four days - which follows 2,200 people signing a previous one.

He said people from the east of the city would be forced to travel further afield to the Royal South Hants Hospital in St Mary's or Southampton General Hospital or use other options such as the 111 helpline and pharmacists.

Daily Echo:

Wheelchair user Ebe Hassan, 65, from Sholing, who has attended the centre several times after minor falls said: "I feel very strongly that they shouldn't close this down. It's helped me, many people rely on it and the main hospital is so far away."

Angela Jones, 68, who was diagnosed with pneumonia at Bitterne Walk-In said: "This centre could have saved my life. You need someone there for physical contact and the 111 phone line doesn't do that."

Sandi O'Donnell, 60, from Woolston, who previously took her grown-up son Michael there who has special needs said: "they really need to seriously re-think this. Going to the main hospital is traumatic because you have to pay for parking or if you don't have a car you have to rely on buses."

Daily Echo:

Previously Mr Smith said there is no possibility of challenging the decision as the CCG "followed procedure", and also criticised the way TUSC had carried out their campaign.

He wants GPs to use £3m of the Prime Minister's Challenge Fund money to enable residents to access their GPs from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week."

The Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had originally unveiled a pilot plan to close the centre last year but that was temporarily shelved.

However the plans were back on the table earlier this year and it was decided last month that it would shut.

The CCG estimated 86,000 in the city have a long term health problem.