Wolverhampton walk-in centre turns away patients as system reaches breaking point

Showell Park Health and Walk In Centre closed its doors for three hours at one point last week as it reached full capacity.

Patients who attended the centre in Low Hill were told to call 999, see their GP or go to the under-pressure A&E department at New Cross, which is already taking on more patients from troubled Stafford Hospital.

A warning notice has now been posted on the centre's website saying that the doors will close whenever it is full and patients will have to go elsewhere.

Walk-in centres bridge the gap between GPs - who often have waiting times for appointments of up to a month - and A&E departments, with the unit at New Cross seeing record patient numbers in the past two years.

The chair of Wolverhampton patient group Healthwatch said the situation in the city was reaching crisis point.

Bosses point to the fact that Showell Park will combine with GP services and a new A&E unit in a new £30m Emergency Centre, due to open at New Cross in a year's time.

But Maxine Bygrave called on organisations to provide a short-term solution to the crisis.

"The system is at breaking point," she said. "We're only just reached the end of summer, we haven't even seen the winter pressures yet.

"There need to be discussions for series action."

Wolverhampton's other walk-in centre is the Phoenix Centre in Parkfields.

Dee Harris, urgent care chief for Wolverhampton CCG, which commissions the city's health services, said of Showell Park: "The walk-in centre was continuing to treat existing patients, but following an unprecedented level of demand, it had to temporarily redirect new arrivals during a three hour period to other local services, such as their own GP, NHS 111 and the Phoenix walk-in facility.

"This increase in demand is one of the reasons why we are changing our services so that patients will have access to an urgent care centre 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year."

Wolverhampton MP Pat McFadden called for more funding to ease pressure on the city's health service.

He said: The NHS provides a fantastic service but it is under great pressure.

"People are finding it tougher to get early appointments with GPs and pressure on walk in centres and A&E is growing.

"The service needs more funding, more staff and more firepower to deal with these pressures."