Hunt faces growing anger from devastating NHS attacks
Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was told to prepare for a community revolt after more evidence emerged yesterday that his disastrous "reforms" are forcing dramatic cuts onto England's NHS.
Watchdog Monitor dealt a further blow to the government's chaotic market experiment when it revealed that nearly one in four "walk-in" centres - designed to take pressure off hospitals - have shut in the past three years.
Reasons given by commissioning bodies, which "buy in" GP, hospital and other medical services, included complaints that they had been "too popular."
Walk-in centres sit between A&E and local doctors and offer an easy way for patients to get care.
NHS bosses pushing through emergency department cuts have promoted them as a way to fill the gap.
Now funding chiefs are targeting them as a costly luxury as they struggle with Tory orders to slash £20 billion from budgets.
Monitor warned that the closures since 2010, with 53 out of 238 walk-in sites shut for good, "risk rising health inequality if suitable alternatives are not put in place."
A patient poll of 2,000 people found 21 per cent would go to their A&E if the centre didn't exist.
But many emergency departments are struggling with cuts to staffing and budgets.
Monitor's Catherine Davies warned that the closure of walk-in facilities would hit vulnerable groups hard because they are least likely to be registered with a GP.
Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham called the closures an "act of vandalism," saying: "When hospitals are under so much pressure, it makes no sense to close so many walk-in centres."
Health Emergency director John Lister said: "The fact they are disappearing so rapidly is a cause for concern.
"The ones that are popular tend to be in areas where it's a long way to access anything else."
He warned of "growing anger" and a mood of resistance in communities following last week's court victory over Mr Hunt's plans to slash Lewisham hospital.
Hard-pressed GPs were unlikely to pick up the load where a centre closes, he added.
"If they take the walk-in centres away, can GPs and will GPs want to take on extra workload?
"The evidence already appears to be that they're assigning more and more people to urgent referrals to hospital."
Morning Star
