CAROLINE ANSELL MP: Have your say on future of walk-in health centre

The original consultation was shelved due to Coronavirus but it will restart from the August 3 and end the September 14.

I urge residents to get involved and make their feelings known.

I have previously asked several questions of Eastbourne, Hailsham and Seaford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) over how local people will be able to register with other GPs, if the centre closes. I have not received a reply as yet.

The CCG is suggesting that around 3,400 patients registered at the centre’s GP surgery would be able to go to other surgeries in the town.

But I did some research before lockdown and Arlington Road, Bolton Road and Lighthouse surgeries had suspended their lists and were not open to new patients, Grove Road was full and a doctor had left.

Only Enys Road - which is moving out of the town centre - had a small number of places and far, far less than 3,400.

This state of affairs is without the significant number of new residential developments coming down the line in our town centre in the next ten years or so.

Opportunity sites identified by Eastbourne Borough Council in the Town Centre Plan 2013 signpost several hundred new town centre dwellings.

Add to that potential windfall sites such as Debenhams, TG Hughes and the Old Magistrates Court and the numbers - and the need - is only going one way.

The centre is also much used by foreign students and other visitors to our town.

However, the CCG says this can be overcome by talking to colleges directly and using Facebook, which seems a little vague and, again, plays into the fears I have about a digital divide.

I certainly respect the CCG’s expertise in this matter and I am happy to be told all the reasons why this walk-in centre can close and not disadvantage patients in Eastbourne.

However, I am yet to be convinced.

I will put details of how to engage with the consultation on my Facebook page and e-news when they are issued.

In other health news, the government has started its preparations to tackle any potential second wave of COVID-19 by announcing around 30 million people in England will be offered a free winter flu vaccine this year.

This includes for the first time those over 50 and year seven schoolchildren.

Seasonal flu is a serious condition and if we are to help the NHS, this is a sensible and most welcome thing to do.

A flu vaccine is not 100 per cent effective as there are often several strains of the virus but it can help a great deal.

Right now, the most effective thing we can all continue to do is to stay alert, follow the guidance and look out for each other.

Take good care and keep in touch.