Bradford’s flagship walk-in health centre has sadly proved to be a failure in terms of improvements to the long-term health of the public.

The Hillside Bridge centre in Barkerend was intended to give better access to healthcare for some of the most socially excluded members of the community.

And while it has undoubtedly proved useful to patients on a one-off individual basis, it has not made any significant improvements to health outcomes or cost benefits, according to a new report, and has actually resulted in an increased demand for urgent care services.

In some ways, it can be argued the centre has proven to be a victim of its own success.

Patients have used it as a quick alternative to using their own GP, or even as a source of a second opinion if they have been unhappy with what their doctor has said to them.

That has meant that four times as many patients as anticipated used it in 2009-10, and it has been running at more than 30 per cent over budget.

NHS Bradford and Airedale Primary Care Trust is now looking to reduce the hours the service operates in a bid to mitigate these problems.

The walk-in centre is something that certainly seemed like a good idea at the time.

But it is a shame that no one thought through the full implications of the problems that could and have developed from its overuse by patients who were not intended to be the target user groups.

Unfortunately, cutting the hours is likely to mean those vulnerable groups who genuinely do need this service could well end up missing out again.