Bury Council and NHS Bury are currently consulting people on the future of ‘urgent care services’. This consultation particularly affects services that take place in Bury itself. A second phase of the review which looks more at services that relate to North Manchester hospital (and quite possibly Prestwich) is expected later in the year.

Urgent care services are for things that are not an emergency, but at the same time can’t wait; for example a person might be looking for some urgent advice, an urgent GP appointment or a walk-in service to help with a minor ailment or injury.

A number of options have been put forward for people to share their views on, the preferred option being put forward proposes:

– The redesign of urgent care at Fairfield General Hospital including building a new and enhanced Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) open 24/7. This would mean that the current town centre Walk-in Centre would ‘relocate’ to Fairfield to be part of an integrated and enhanced service with a walk in option. The UTC would also include mental health services, GP out of hours services and the treatment of less serious cases that are currently seen in A&E. The service would be run by a team of nurses, GPs, mental health and other health and care professionals who can manage wound care, and there would be access to tests like bloods and X-rays, which are currently not available at Bury Walk-in Centre.

Councillor Andrea Simpson, deputy leader of Bury Council said: “By working in collaboration with our local health and care providers, our proposal secures the future of a walk-in facility, with longer opening hours, connections to more professionals and access to diagnostics like X-ray and blood tests. Through our proposal, we hope to make the urgent care system easier for patients to navigate. There is no doubt that the new system needs to secure better value for the Bury pound, but we also want to ensure that it improves the quality of our services too.”

How to have your say: Read their consultation document (at https://www.buryccg.nhs.uk/download/document_library/were_here_to_help/get_involved/Final-consultation-doc-for-WEB.pdf) and complete our survey (at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WXCJ8B3) to share your views: Available online and in hard copy format in locations such as GP practices and Walk-in Centres. Hard copies can be sent out by post by requesting a copy: 0161 253 7636.

The really big worry for all of us in the Prestwich area will be the future of our Walk-In Centre in the middle of Prestwich. If these proposals for Bury happen, this will be on the only Walk-In Centre left anywhere in Bury. It does not take a genius to work out the direction the Council and NHS Bury are going with this.

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