Discussions are taking place about the future of our GP walk-in centre at Eastbourne station with the local CCG clearly favouring its closure. We probably all understand that often when these ‘discussions and consultations’ are underway the decision has already been made. But, they are asking for our opinions and so I hope as many of us as possible will make the effort to give them. There are many ways to do this given on the CCG website but I would like to have a survey going through this website. Please, do answer the questions and share this post to encourage your friends, family and work colleagues to do the same.
You can read the CCG’s ‘logic’ here but this is a quick summary. They say that many people are confused about which service to access when we have walk-in centres, urgent care centres, minor injury units and GP surgeries. I’m not sure how confused we all are but surely just closing down places where people can access care is not the best way to address the confusion?
The walk-in centre at the station is very convenient because of its locality. It is designed to be somewhere people can access help at times when they cannot get to their GP.
But they say that as we now have a few GP surgeries that open in the evening and at weekends the issue of people being unable to accesss their GP when they need to has been dealt with.
They talk about the 111 service, which is something that confuses many people who wonder whether they should be dialling 111 or 999 in an emergency The 111 service quicky got a bad reputation when it first started as the call handlers were not medically qualified and there were too few trained people available to help them. Perhaps now, things are different and the existence of 111 is enought to justify closing the walk-in centre?
From December of this year there is also going to be an urgent care centre opened at the hospital for non-emergency treatment but obviously this will lack the benefits of the walk-in centres town centre locality.
So, in the comment box below if you can answer the following questions then perhaps we can start getting a picture of what our population feels about the GP walk-in centre.
- Do you feel confused about which NHS service to access when you need care?
- Do you feel that simple signs outside services or any other means of informing the public would be a better way of addressing confusion than closing the service?
- Are you having difficulty in getting a GP appointment when you need one?
- Can you share any thoughts you may have about the NHS 111 service?
- Do you feel that it is satisfactory to ask people to get to an Urgent Care Centre in the Hospital instead of the station Walk-In Centre?
- Please share any other thoughts you may have about the potential closure of the Walk-In Centre at the station in Eastbourne
If you also wish to send your views to the CCG you can contact them through social media @EHSeaCCG, email them using the address EHSCCG.YourSay@nhs.net or write to them at:-
NHS Eastbourne,Hailsham and Seaford CCG, 36-38 Friars Walk, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 6D8
Or you can use their online survey
But, please do use the comment box below to answer the few questions in this post so we can start to guage how our population is really feeling.
Thankyou for your time
