THE GP in charge of the Thurrock Health Centre in Grays has gone on the record to plead the case for keeping the health centre open.
Dr Pro Malik said:
"I am the medical director of College Health Ltd. We set up the Thurrock Health Centre and walk in service over five years ago after winning the tender.
We tendered along with 27 other organisations and were successful. We have built the service up from scratch.
We started with a list size of zero on day 1 and now we have a registered list size of over 7,500 patients.
In addition we run the walk in service for all residents in Thurrock to use and we see between 1700 -1900 walks in unregistered patients per month.
We strongly agree with Mr Aker and believe shutting the walk in service will be hugely detrimental to the patients of Thurrock.
The main reason for coming to the walk in stated by patients is that they cannot access their own GP.
Contrary to reports that walk in services only see minor illness or the worried well or patients seeking a second opinions, we have the experience and knowledge of running a walk in service to know this is not the case.
Our highly skilled experienced clinical team see a variety of medical conditions from minor injuries to medical emergencies and cancer diagnosis.
This walk in service is unlike many in the country which are nurse led – we have a GP and nurse practitioner working side by side seeing patients.
We do not believe that the CCG’s 4 hub model to offer 19 appointments on a Saturday and Sunday morning between 9-13.00 will meet current local needs.
The walk in service runs 08.00-20.00, seven days a week, 365 days a year including public holidays. This cannot be replaced with such poor provision for patients.
The primary problem is GP access and there has been no solution offered by the CCG or area team to resolve this.
In addition nationally there is a GP workforce crisis and recruitment of GPs and nurses to areas such as Thurrock have been very difficult, an ageing GP workforce on the horizon and insufficient numbers of doctors coming into general practice and demands and workload make other options more attractive to young doctors.
We are all aware of the pressures in A/E departments across the country and at times bringing hospitals to breaking point, where patients attend with conditions that could be managed within a primary care setting because they cannot access their GP.
This can only get worse with closing services such as the walk in service as patients have no other options.
"We believe strongly that the closure of the walk in service in Grays will be severely detrimental to the residents of Thurrock and the local health economy; and hence welcome patients who have utilised the service over the last five years to give their voice and support it to remain open.
