WORCESTER’S MP visited a walk-in health centre in the city which is seeing hundreds of patients a week.

Robin Walker visited Worcester Walk-In Health Centre in Farrier Street for the first time yesterday and said he was impressed with what he saw.

He said: “What’s useful about the walk-in centre is that it’s available for long hours in a convenient location for many people in the centre of the city. It is also providing a very important service to the homeless in Worcester.”

The centre, which is managed by private firm Elgar Healthcare, serves both patients registered there and patients who might be registered at another surgery but who require urgent care as walk-in patients.  Established 18 months ago, it now has a registered patient list of just over 1,800, a figure which increases by about 90 patients per month.

The centre is open 12 hours a day (8am to 8pm) every day of the year.

Dr Charlie Harris helped set up the centre with Dr Adam Thompson.

It provides about 30,000 appointments a year to walk-in patients.

Centre bosses say the service has improved access to county GP services, reducing the burden on the out-of-hours service and A&E services.

The centre has proved popular with hard-to-reach groups such as the young, including students, and ‘working age’ male patients in the city centre. Staff see about 600 patients a week.

Elgar is now in talks with NHS Worcestershire, which oversees healthcare provision in the county, over proposed contract changes.

Malcolm Sampson, director of Elgar, said: “While the primary care trust has not ruled out the possibility of closing the walk-in health centre, we are optimistic that these negotiations could actually result in a broader range of urgent care services being offered here.”

A spokesman for NHS Worcestershire said there were currently no plans to close the walk-in centre.