A PIONEERING medical walk-in centre is under threat again, local health chiefs have revealed.

Since the service opened in 2008 as part of the larger Hillside Bridge Health Centre in Barkerend, the hard-to reach people it was set up to help like asylum seekers, the homeless, commuters and substance misuse patients have hardly used it.

Instead, most of its patients have been those who are already registered elsewhere with a GP but have struggled to get appointments or who simply want a second opinion, according to the NHS groups that commissioned it.

The walk-in centre, which was the country’s first ever GP-led centre of its kind, has been under review previously by Bradford City and Bradford District Clinical Commissioning Groups because of its usage, but now its future is in question again as social enterprise organisation Local Care Direct’s contract to run it, and the bigger GP surgery, ends in March. The CCGs are now planning a public consultation over the next few months with a view to re-commissioning the main GP service, but say there is no evidence from its extensive consultations that people’s overall health has been improved as a result of using the walk-in facility.

However, the walk-in’s future will depend on the outcome of the new consultation, said a CCG spokesman. Bradford Council’s health and social care overview and scrutiny committee will get an update on the plans on Thursday.

Committee chairman, Cllr Vanda Greenwood, said members already know the walk-in service has been expensive to run but said it has also provided a great service for some vulnerable people.

She said: “The Overview and Scrutiny Committee have discussed Hillside Bridge walk-in centre on previous occasions.

“We have been told it is an expensive service given how many people use it and that it has not had the impact on A&E that was originally envisaged. But we also know it has provided a great service for some vulnerable people.

“Last time we discussed it the CCGs agreed that this service shouldn’t change until the plans for urgent care were real and in a position to be implemented. The CCGs are, as I understand it, now wanting to hear current views on Hillside Bridge walk-in centre so they can factor it into how the urgent care service and plans for extended GP hours will work.”

Currently, the enhanced walk-in service offers GP appointments for non-registered patients seven days a week from 2pm to 8pm and for patients registered with a Bradford GP, on weekday evenings and from 2pm to 8pm on weekends.

Dr Akram Khan, clinical chairman at Bradford City CCG, said: “We want to meet the primary care access needs of our patients by increasing capacity but in ways that benefit everyone in Bradford and make best use of the resources we already have.”

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