Sheffield Greens have called for more support for Sheffield City’s NHS Walk-In Centre following it receiving an “Inadequate” rating from the Care Quality Commission. (1)
Green Party Deputy Leader Angela Argenzio said,
“I’d like to thank the Care Quality Commission for their report and highlighting areas of concern.
“The performance of the NHS Walk In Centre cannot be viewed in isolation from the under-resourcing of the wider NHS family.
“With people finding access to their own GPs more difficult, especially personal appointments and with long waiting times at Accident and Emergency Departments, there is a knock-on effect on well used services like the NHS Walk-In Centre. In many ways the Centre acts as the canary in the coal mine, showing, through increased demand, the pressures that exist in the NHS as a whole.
The Green Party recognises the value of the Walk-In Centre which is why we have campaigned to keep it open. We also need to work with the NHS and the Council to see how we can improve the service and lobby for the funding it needs to be effective.”
Cllr Douglas Johnson, Leader of the Green Group said,
“The finding that the Walk-In Centre is understaffed and overstretched should be no surprise after 13 years of Tory austerity and the creation of a health “market” by the previous Labour government.
“A truly meaningful response to this judgement would be to properly fund the NHS. Viewing the performance of the NHS Walk-In Centre in isolation at best gives an incomplete picture and at worst completely ignores its relationship with other health services. Demand for services at the Centre would be a lot less if everyone in the city had good access to their own local doctors.
“To respond to the CQC, we need to look not just at how we can improve the Walk In Centre but also how we can get the Government to recognise that all the customer-facing parts of the NHS should be funded and resourced properly to keep people out of hospital.”
Notes
(1) CQC Report into the NHS Walk-In Centre
Urgent – 1-361166596 Sheffield City GP Health Centre (26/07/2023) INS2-15322122231 (cqc.org.uk)
