Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on improving urgent care centres in North Northamptonshire.

Nene and Corby Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) advise that they continue to work closely with partners and stakeholders to ensure that the urgent care services provided to the people of North Northamptonshire are responsive and fit for purpose.

As part of this work, the local National Health Service is developing an integrated emergency care specification in line with the national policy direction and will continue, through the Northamptonshire Sustainability and Transformation Plan, to ensure quality urgent care services in Northamptonshire.

We understand that Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is developing an Outline Business Case for an Urgent Care Hub, and that NHS Improvement is engaging with the Trust on this.

An agreement has been reached between NHS Corby CCG and Lakeside+ Limited to extend the contract to run Corby Urgent Care Centre. The contract will be subject to an extension from 1 October 2017 that will allow it to continue up to but not beyond 31 March 2019.