The Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has voted to continue with the closure of the Monks Road medical centre. The meeting was held at The Showroom in Lincoln on Wednesday, January 24.

 

The centre, where no-appointment is required, has been open since 2009 and provides care for those with medical issues deemed non-urgent. It has been open form 8am – 8pm.

 

Lincolnshire West CCG had already agreed to close the centre in September last year, but were forced to review the decision after many objections from the public.

 

Opening hours will be reduced to weekends from the start of February and an Out-of-Hours service will be provided from March 1 through to the middle April.

 

The announcement followed a questionnaire in which 94% of participants objected to the closure.

 

Protests were held outside Lincoln County Hospital and along Lincoln High Street. Both the Conservative-led Lincolnshire County Council and the Labour-led Lincoln City Council formally objected to the closure.

 

Lincoln MP Karen Lee had previously written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt, to request that the decision be reviewed.

 

Lee said: “As a healthcare professional, I understand that the delivery of health care changes and evolves with the passing of time. However, I am not supportive of the closure of the walk-in centre because it is my belief that its closure is a downgrading of the health provision my constituents will be able to access.

 

“Further to that, I am uncomfortable that the consultation process undertaken does not appear to have been a meaningful one, given that 94% of respondents expressed the wish for the walk-in-centre to remain open and the voice of local people has been ignored.

 

“The walk-in centre’s closure is likely to put A&E under an even greater strain than it already is. I have seen first-hand the pressures the hard-working A&E professionals are already experiencing.”

 

The CCG argued that according to its own research, 95% of walk-in centre patients had medical issues that could be treated elsewhere.

 

The also said a large proportion of visitors were students of the University of Lincoln. But, they later admitted that they made up just a small percentage of the 30,000 visitors each year.

 

The Walk-in Centre will be formally closed at the end of February.