 Patients can get advice on minor ailments at the centres |
More walk-in centres, where patients can access immediate NHS care, are to open, the government has announced. Forty million pounds will be invested in new centres over the next three years.
Eleven new centres, concentrated around London and the south-east of England, have been announced.
Up to six more sites will be identified in the next financial year, with the possibility of more to follow.
 | New walk-in centres Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust Crawley Primary Care Trust/Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust East Surrey Hospital and East Surrey PCT Redbridge PCT Waltham Forest PCT City & Hackney PCT Whittington Hospital NHS Trust Barnet PCT Lewisham PCT Teddington Memorial Hospital Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust |
The government has said, as the centres develop, they will also be able to offer nurse prescribing and access to GP services. It says the network of centres will relieve pressure on local A&E and GP services, enabling them to meet their respective targets of seeing patients within four and 48 hours.
But critics have said the centres do not relieve pressure on local services and are not cost effective.
There are already 42 walk-in centres, where patients can receive advice and treatment for minor ailments and injuries without making an appointment, open across England.
Three million people have been seen at the centres since 2000.
'Flexibility'
Health minister John Hutton said: "We know that the public want and expect fast and convenient access to services in primary care.
"Some have even been put off making an appointment with their GP because they could not get a routine appointment outside normal working and travelling times.
|  If as the government claims, nearly all practices are already meeting their access targets, why do we need more walk-in centres?  |
"They want the flexibility to be able to choose to access services at times and locations which are convenient to their lifestyle." He added: "These extra resources will mean more patients will see the results of NHS reform in better and faster services."
The funding will be invested over the next three years, with �20m allocated in 2003/4 and �10m in each of the following two years.
Research published earlier this year showed a walk-in centre in Loughborough had not significantly affected the numbers of patients going to see their GPs.
And the British Medical Association has questioned whether the centres are a cost-effective way of providing NHS care.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, joint deputy chair of the BMA's GP committee, said: "We have concerns about expansion of these services when there has been little analysis of the cost-effectiveness of the existing pilots.
"Moreover, if as the government claims, nearly all practices are already meeting their access targets, why do we need more walk-in centres?"
He added: "The BMA would still advise patients to benefit from the continuity of seeing their own GP for most conditions though we recognise that there are occasions when they may wish to visit walk in centres for one-off, minor ailments."
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