Contract for North Ormesby health centre walk-in service extended for 12 months

A walk-in service at a Middlesbrough health centre will remain open for at least another year.

The Resolution Health Centre, on Trinity Mews in North Ormesby, runs a walk-in service for unregistered patients alongside the regular GP practice.

In October last year, the GP service at Resolution was one of six on Teesside to have its contracts extended by NHS England, which runs the service, securing the immediate future for more than 15,000 patients.

Now the South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which runs the walk-in service at the health centre, has confirmed that the walk-in contract has also been extended for 12 months to March 31, 2016.

The walk-in service was given a target of attracting 20,000 visitors, but was actually used 42,636 times between April 2013 and 2014.

The current contract was due to come to an end on April 1 this year.

A CCG report to be delivered to Middlesbrough Council’s Health Scrutiny Panel on Tuesday afternoon said after a national review of urgent and emergency services ordered in 2013, “extending the contract for a further 12 months would provide stability”.

Most of those who use the service live in Middlesbrough, with 52.6% of visits coming out of normal GP opening hours.

But only 1.6% of total visits resulted in a hospital referral or a patient being admitted.

The report continued: “Attendances are well above those which have been contracted, the level of activity throughout the contract clearly demonstrates that patient demand exists and in contrast, there is no evidence of a decrease in the demand for accident and emergency.

“The success of the walk-in centre appears to have created a new patient demand.

“It may be that the ease of access to appointments has raised expectations in terms of the speed at which patients can be seen on a walk-in basis.”

The Gazette reported in November that six under- threat GP practices in Teesside, serving more than 15,000 patients, had been handed a reprieve by NHS England.

Their contracts, all due to end in the next few months, were under scrutiny because of low patient numbers.

Resolution Health Centre’s registered GP service, along with Hemlington Medical Centre, Stockton Health Centre in Hardwick, Eston Grange Health Centre in South Bank and the Langbaurgh Medical Centre in Redcar have seen their contracts extended by a year.

And NHS England bosses are looking at renewing their contract full-time at Marske Medical Centre.