Opposition to Middleton Walk-in Centre closure plans

Middleton Walk-in Centre threatened with closure

Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group (HMR CCG) is said to have been “surprised” at the response from members of the public during a meeting about plans to close Middleton Walk-in Centre.

The HMR CCG has recommended closing the walk-in based facility based at the health centre in Middleton Shopping Centre.

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Rob McLean, Finance Director for Hope Citadel Healthcare, said: “I think the CCG were surprised by how many people actually turned up to the meeting and I don’t think they expected the response that they got from patients.”

Around 80 people attended the meeting to express their opposition to proposals set out by the CCG. It is understood that the CCG informed those in attendance that the service would be opened until October 2016 and then, the service would “expire”.

Mr McLean added: “They told us that we had misled the public by telling them that we have been threatened with closure and when they were talking at the meeting, they were using terminology liked “expired” but by the end of the meeting, they started to address the issue as “closure”.

Staff at the centre are concerned that closing the walk-in facility will have a knock on affect to other services.

“If you close this centre then there will be a knock on affect elsewhere. If you close Heywood and Middleton [for example] then there will be a knock on effect in Rochdale. There will then be an increase in people going to A&E because they can’t access the walk-in service here. If any of these proposed practices close, it will have a knock on affect elsewhere,” added Mr McLean.

Patients at the meeting were described as “angry” and didn’t like the ideas proposed by the CCG for health hubs across the borough, inconvenience that the closure would cause and the new system of booking appointments at the new hubs.

Mr McLean added: “There is no logic behind this decision and, from what we understand, there is no viable reason to close this walk-in facility.”

Under the proposals set out by the CCG, hubs with access to more appointments would be available to people across the borough.

Centre Manager Ruth Lloyd said: “Just because it says they will increase the appointments doesn’t mean that it will happen. There is no guarantee that these extra appointments will happen. By closing the walk-in facility you are taking away that place were people can go if they need to see someone and they can’t get an appointment.”

Middleton Health Centre and the walk-in facility opened seven years ago and offers a twelve hour a day service. The walk-in service has seen up to 24,000 people use it per year and the health centre currently has a patient list of 3,000.

Centre Manager Karen Ogden added: “This walk-in service has saved lives. We have been told that because of this service, we have saved lives. We have people accessing this service from all across the borough, not just Middleton.”

Representatives from the CCG assured those in attendance that all feedback will be taken back and listened to before a decision is made.

A final decision on the plans will be made at a meeting on 24 November 2015.

A public meeting regarding plans for Kingsway Medical Practice and Kirkholt Medical Practice will take place on Tuesday 27 October (rescheduled date), at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Rochdale, starting at 6:30pm.