Express & Star

West Bromwich walk-in centre to shut despite increased demand

A Sandwell walk-in centre is set to be closed a year before a new one is up and running despite increasing demand for the service.

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The walk-in centre on Parsonage Street. Photo: Google

The contract for Malling Health to operate the facility on Parsonage Street in West Bromwich will end on March 31, 2021.

The lease on the building expires at the same time and will not be renewed, Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) confirmed.

However a new urgent treatment centre at the Sandwell General Hospital site is not due to be open until spring 2022 when the much-delayed Midland Metropolitan Hospital is now expected to be ready.

The CCG stated there would be "continuity" of service but said it was too early to provide any details of what that would be at this stage. A consultation with patients is due to get under way in the coming weeks.

The service at Parsonage Street is open 12 hours a day seven days a week and has more than 9,000 registered patients according the NHS website.

Elsewhere Virgin Care’s contract for the walk-in centre at Summerfield on Heath Street, near Winson Green, also expires on March 31, 2021. But that will be re-procured for five years with a five year option to extend. The lease on that building is secure until around 2030.

The move comes amid an NHS shake-up to urgent treatment centres.

The future of the two centres in Sandwell and west Birmingham was discussed by Birmingham City Council’s Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday.

Hannah Ship, commissioning manager at the CCG, said: “Locally we have got two walk-in centres; one at Parsonage Street in Sandwell and one at Summerfield in west Birmingham.

“Recently we’ve noticed the demand at both of these services has increased as it has across the urgent care system as a whole.

“This is despite a deliberate increase in primary care capacity extended access, so GP practice access has been improved, but we are still seeing an increase in demand for our urgent care systems.

“We know our patients want an easy system to access that suits their personal circumstances. We know there is some duplication in the system and we are looking at what we can do to reduce that.”

The CCG also stated they were working with their counterpart organisation for Birmingham and Solihull which is reviewing the future of the Boots walk-in facility in Birmingham city centre.