NHS Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has decided to close the Walk in service based in Thurrock Health Centre, Grays, following a unanimous decision by all members of the Governing Body during its May meeting.
The decision follows nearly a year of engagement with local communities and stakeholders which included a public consultation which ran from 2 February to 24 March. The results of the consultation were considered and scrutinised by members of the Governing Body at its meeting on Wednesday 27 May.
A key theme from the report showed that access to their GP was the greatest concern for people including the difficulty of getting routine and urgent GP appointments and a desire to see GP opening hours extended to evening and weekends. Respondents also felt that there needed to be better use of resources.
Dr Anand Deshpande, Chair NHS Thurrock CCG, said: “On behalf of the CCG Governing Body I am pleased that we have come to a decision that I feel is the best for all Thurrock residents. Closing the Walk in service and reinvesting the money into the local health hubs where people can access weekend GP and nurse appointments closer to where they live is truly a step in the right direction. The Walk in service will not close until March 2016; this will give us, along with patient involvement, nine months to consider the most effective way of investing the funds saved form the closure.”
“We are grateful to everyone who shared their views in our questionnaire and came along to our public events. We looked very carefully at the results and with our unique perspective of the clinical needs of patients we have reached a decision that we believe is the best for the residents of Thurrock.”
Now that a decision has been made, the CCG can start to draw up implementation plans for developing the hubs. These plans will come back to the Governing Body for review and approval in July.
The GP service based at the same premises in Thurrock Health Centre is unaffected by this decision.
