TWO walk-in centres facing closure have had their opening hours cut due to staff shortages.

The Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust announced today that Bury Walk In Centre, based at the Moorgate Primary Care Centre, will now only open from 7am to 3pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on weekends.

Patients could previously visit until 10pm on weekdays and from 9am to 10pm at the weekend.

Prestwich Walk In Centre, which previously opened at 8am, will be open from noon to 8pm seven days a week until further notice.

Both centres are facing closure under plans from Bury NHS Clinical Commissioning Group to radically overhaul the borough’s urgent care provisions.

A decision on the proposals will be made at an extraordinary meeting of the CCG’s governing body next week.

Keith Walker, Executive Director of Operations for Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Ensuring local people receive a safe and high quality service is our top priority. The decision to change the opening hours is never made lightly; it is a rare occurrence and is always a last resort. “In this instance, the decision has been made due to current staffing levels.

"We have been working with colleagues at NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group and have pursued every possible avenue to source cover for the centres, without success.

"This is partly due to a shortage in the specialist nursing staff that we need for the centres, which is a national issue.

“We continue to work towards a longer term solution. In the meantime we have ensured that people can still access urgent care at one of the centres throughout the day and into the evening.

“The opening times are being publicised in several ways, including on our website at www.penninecare.nhs.uk.”

Members of the public are being invited to attend the CCG meeting next week.

This extraordinary one item meeting, will take place on Wednesday 18th January 2017 from 2pm until 4pm, in the Minden Room at the Fusilier Museum, Moss Street, Bury.

Public questions relating to this meeting are welcome and must be submitted at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting to allow sufficient time for the question to be considered.

Question forms are available on the CCG’s website and paper copies can be obtained by contacting the CCG by telephone on 0161 762 3072 or by email at buccg.corporateoffice@nhs.net

Dr Kiran Patel, Chair of NHS Bury CCG, said: “At this meeting, the Governing Body will discuss and decide on recommendations following the engagement phase on the urgent care review in Bury, for which we received a significant amount of feedback.

“At the heart of our urgent care review was to make the current system less confusing for patients in terms of which service will best meet their needs, where to access that service and when.

“It also aimed to reduce duplication and to use the finite resources we have to best effect so that the services we commission work more closely together, operate more smoothly and benefit patients by offering an efficient and flexible service for the future.”