Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department issues to clinical commissioning groups on consulting local people before taking the decision to close walk-in centres.

The Department has not issued guidance to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) on walk-in-centres. NHS England has responsibility for oversight of CCGs and has published ‘Planning and delivering service changes for patients’, a good practice guide for commissioners on the development of proposals for major service changes and reconfigurations, which can be found here:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/plan-del-serv-chge1.pdf

The reconfiguration of local health services is a matter for the local National Health Service. All service changes should be led by clinicians and be in the best interests of patients, not driven from the top down.

It is for NHS commissioners and providers to work together, with local authorities, patients and the public, in bringing forward proposals that will improve the quality, safety and sustainability of healthcare services.

It is also worth noting the relevant report by Monitor which found that reasons for closing walk-in centres include replacing them with co-located urgent care centres and hospital accident and emergency sites, for example. The British Medical Associations evidence to that report said ‘there is no clear evidence that walk-in centres are meeting unmet need’.