WHILE celebrations about the reopening of Hexham Hospital’s overnight urgent care centre were ongoing, it was this week discovered that the walk-in set up of the service has been abandoned.

In July, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said it would be closing the urgent care centre between 10pm and 8am for at least four weeks.

This was then extended to an “indeterminate period”, sparking fears among residents that the centre would eventually be closed permanently.

But last week it was announced the service would resume with immediate effect, with Hexham’s MP claiming he was delighted with the news.

He said: “After many months, I am delighted with the news that the overnight care facility at Hexham General Hospital is reopening.

“Over the last few months I have met repeatedly with managers and continually pressed for a rethink, with a resolution of the NHS Trust staffing rotas that caused the problem in the first place.”

However, after patients reported turning up at the hospital to find they could not access the centre without dialling NHS 111, a spokesman for the trust confirmed yesterday that new arrangements were in place.

Rather than being able to walk in to the urgent care centre, patients now have to contact NHS 111 to speak to a trained advisor.

If they turn up at the hospital without ringing the number, they will be required to use the phone in the hospital’s lobby to seek advice on whether the urgent care centre is the most appropriate service, before being allowed access.

The only exception is if they are seriously ill, when they would dial 999.

Marion Dickson, chief operating officer for surgery, clinical support and child health, said: “We’re confident we’ve found a safe and sustainable way of providing this service and I would like to once again thank our amazing staff at Hexham hospital who have made this possible.”

But Gail Ward, one of the founders of Defend Tynedale’s NHS Services, raised questions over the future of the urgent care service.

She said: “We will be watching the situation very closely because we know it is a possibility it will eventually close again at some point – but we will keep fighting to do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”