NHS walk-in centre closures ‘fuelling winter crisis’

A mass closure of NHS walk-in centres has deprived patients of easy access to medical help and added pressure on A&E units, campaigners have said.

The campaigning organisation 38 Degrees said a total of 95 walk-in centres, 40 per cent of the overall number - have closed since the Conservatives came to power, or are due to shut soon.

Critics say the closure of the centres has piled even greater pressure on hospitals, which are already suffering in the NHS winter crisis.

Walk-in centres were one of the last Labour government’s flagship NHS policies. About 230 of them opened in England in the 2000s, but by 2014 the health regulator Monitor found that 51 had closed since 2010. Research by 38 Degrees has found that another 44 of the remaining 185 have since shut.

Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat MP, said: “The closure of walk-in centres on such a dramatic scale is depressingly shortsighted. This has been happening under the radar, but will doubtless be driving some of the pressure that is pushing A&E units to breaking point.

“The rhetoric from the government is always about how we can reduce the need for admission to hospital and A&E, and yet the reality is endless closures of the very services that help to avoid these admissions. It comes down to crisis management to keep within budget at a local level – but the chaos in hospitals this winter shows that the consequences are disastrous.”

Holly Maltby, 38 Degrees, blamed the closures on government underfunding of the NHS. She said: “Each time an NHS service is cut through lack of funding, it piles pressure on remaining services.”