Closure of Norwich Walk in Clinic

It seems to me that many have missed the point on this fiasco.

As a member of the steering group that set it up the Norwich Walk in Clinic, I am appalled at the miss information that has been allowed to go unchallenged particularly by local Conservative politicians in Thorpe St Andrew where the Clinic is situated.

Norwich Walk in Clinic

As one of the Labour Government’s new initiatives the original concept was and remains sound. That is to make the simpler but important medical services available over wider hours and to many harder to reach people. Two target groups were men who tend to generally be more reluctant to go to GPs until they really have to, and young women needing access to emergency contraception or advice.

Another misconception is that it serves only the leafy suburbs of Norwich. In fact when we set it up, Sainsbury PLC was very helpful in sharing some of their detailed data of likely clients. Without betraying any confidential information I can assure you that its and the WiC’s clients are very widely spread throughout Norfolk, not just Norwich. The most misunderstood part is, of course, that any potential closure is related to the new provision of a Doctor lead service to be located in the centre of Norwich. The new Darzi clinic is not Nurse lead and will provide a different service to that currently provided at the Norwich (Dussindale) WiC. The proposed closure in April next year is related to finance, not need or type of provision.

Another anomaly is that, yet again, GPs are against the Darzi  Clinic probably for the same reasons as they were against the WiC when it opened. We need to remember that GP practices are contracted private businesses. One final message to the unelected PCT taking these decisions is have they considered the potential impact on the hospital A&E who would otherwise take a significant proportion of current WiC patients?

Click for Evening News coverage.

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