Options for Middleton Walk in Centre patients

Middleton Walk-in Centre to close October 2016

Middleton Walk in Centre is set to close its doors – but what are the options for patients needing care?

Four hubs across the borough have been set up to provide access to more appointments with longer opening hours, including Middleton, which is part of a twelve month pilot scheme.

The addresses of the hubs are:

• Birtle View Medical Practice, Heywood
• Peterloo Medical Centre, Middleton
• Kingsway Medical Practice, Rochdale
• Littleborough Health Centre, Rochdale

A spokesperson for NHS, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale CCG said: “Our GP extended hours hub went live in December 2015. Staffed mainly by local GPs and practice nurses with appointments available to patients registered with a Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale GP.

“The hubs are being run as a part of a pilot scheme to improve access to GP appointments. The Pilot will run initially until March 2017 at which point the scheme will be reviewed and future models considered”.

Middleton man Tony Ettenfield said that the hubs are not going to be able to cope with walk-in centre demands. He told Rochdale Online: “The (Middleton) walk in centre will most likely end up in the health centre anyway so it would be nice to know what they’re playing at.

“The general idea these days is to pre-decide before public consultation. The consultation is a tick box exercise so everyone can cover their backs, but everything was decided long, long ago.

“The worrying thing is he new hubs are going to be in GP surgeries. How they are going to find space inside a GP surgery for walk in centre patients is beyond me. Things aren’t looking too good in general for the future of our health services.”

Rob McLean, Finance Director for Hope Citadel Healthcare, which runs the walk in centre, said: “We will continue to offer a seven day walk in service through to the proposed closure in October. We are directing patients to use the hubs, however, we are continuing to find that the walk in demand is far exceeding the capacity of the hubs, and in fact we have experienced various cases of the hubs directing patients back to the walk in centre.

“We are assisting the CCG in assessing the needs of the vulnerable patients in the area, to see if further services can be commissioned to respond to this need.”

Hub appointments can be made by contacting your own GP surgery. Appointments can be booked on the day or up to 14 days in advance. Patients can attend at any of the four hubs based across Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale.

The opening times for all hubs are:

• Monday – Friday 6.30pm – 9.00pm
• Saturday 8.00am – 6.00pm
• Sunday 10.00am – 1.00pm
• Bank Holidays 8.00am – 6.00pm