A threatened medical walk-in centre could get a second stay of execution.
The pioneering Hillside Bridge walk-in centre in Barkerend is expected to have its contract extended for a further six months, as health chiefs decide on its long-term future.
The contract for the centre had originally been due to end next month, but was then granted a four-month extension until March.
This latest reprieve would see it remain open until the end of September while an in-depth review continues, Bradford East Area Committee heard yesterday.
Committee chairman Councillor Mohammed Shafiq (Lab, Bradford Moor) welcomed the news. He said: “This is not something that can be rushed through. It needs adequate, proper analysis.”
The walk-in centre, part of the larger Hillside Bridge Health Centre in Barkerend, was set up to treat people without a GP, or who could not get an appointment with their GP.
But it is not serving the vulnerable groups it was designed to do, such as the homeless or travellers, health bosses argue. The rest of the health centre would not be affected by any closure of the walk-in clinic.
The discussion over Hillside Bridge was part of a wider presentation on the work of the district’s Clinical Commissioning Groups, which oversee GP surgeries.
But the vagueness of the report was slammed by Councillor Jeanette Sunderland (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley), who called it “an insult”.
She said: “Yes, it’s very interesting, but it is very general and it is not getting to the heart of the issue.”
She said Bradford East had “the biggest set of health inequalities of any of the constituencies” and they needed to know what the specific issues were in each area, and what was being done about them.
Bradford Districts Clinical Commissioning Group locality development manager Louise Keighley said she would pass the message on.
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