Sir - I am delighted that my motion to Council objecting to the closure of the Worcester walk in health centre resulted in a thorough-going scrutiny of the proposal by Worcester City Council's Scrutiny committee on Wednesday.
I am even more pleased that the unanimous verdict of the cross-party Scrutiny committee was that the closure of the walk in centre would be detrimental to thousands of people in Worcester and the alternatives proposed were unlikely to meet the health needs of those currently using the centre.
All along I have been critical of the failure of the South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group to be open and transparent about its plans to close the walk in centre. The proposal was not mentioned in its main consultation document on the review of Urgent Care Services. Nor was any direct consultation carried out with the thousands of people who use the walk in centre each year. It was almost as though they hoped nobody would notice.
Times are tough in the NHS and everyone there is working under huge pressure. But that is no excuse for avoiding an open discussion with patients about the future of what so many clearly consider an essential element of health service provision in Worcester.
I did the right thing in raising this at Council and members of the Scrutiny committee did the right thing in telling the CCG they have got this one wrong.
Councillor Joy Squires
Arboretum Ward
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