Julian Knight, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Solihull and leading campaigner to preserve walk in services at Solihull Hospital, has said that he is deeply suspicious of the care quality Commission’s decision to widen its review into whether or not to keep Solihull's walk in centre open or to potentially close it.
The walk in centre, one of the busiest and most successful in the West Midlands first came under the microscope at the start of the year; Julian Knight working closely with the founder and inspiration of the walk in centre, Dr Sunil Kotecha campaigned hard to keep walk in services.
Facing the overwhelming strength of local opinion the Commissioners decided to delay their decision over the walk in centre's future. Now the Commissioners have announced a widening of their review to include bodies such as the Royal College of Surgeons.
However, Julian is far from convinced this is good news:
He said "We have been here before, when maternity services were ripped out of Solihull hospital that involved a review from the very same groups. I fear that this widened review is nothing but a fig leaf to save the Commissioners blushes and that closure of Solihull walk in centre is still on the table and all we have won is a delay."
Julian Knight is to write to the Commissioners once again to restate the case for retaining walk in services at Solihull hospital. He said "The red line for me is that the people of Solihull should be able to access walk in services at their local hospital rather than have to travel miles out of their way, or clog up an already under pressure accident and emergency department."
"At the very least we need to see a walk in service retained even if it means that the facility moves within the main hospital building; it won't be ideal but it is better than the alternative."