A DOUBLE-pronged campaign has been launched to save an at-risk walk-in centre in Southampton.

Two campaigners pushing to be the next MP for the area have each launched their own battle plans to keep the centre open.

Rowenna Davis, Labour’s prospective Parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Southampton Itchen in next year’s General Election, has started a petition to save Bitterne Walk-In Centre.

And Councillor Royston Smith, local ward member and Conservative PPC for the seat, said he was in direct talks with health chiefs to find an alternative solution to its planned closure in December.

As reported, Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Solent NHS Trust plan to shut the centre for six months and use its 12 nurses to provide a similar service through GP practices and in-community care.

Ms Davis said: “I am hugely concerned at the proposed closure. Many people in Southampton are already having to wait over a week to get a GP appointment, and the walk-in centre offers them a vital alternative. “More than 20,000 people used the centre last year, and the CCG has not explained properly how their needs will be met. We don’t have any hospitals here on the east side of the city, and the walk-in centre has been well used by local families, pensioners and children.”

She also said the plans were unclear and called for a public consultation before they are finalised.

Cllr Smith said he would be happy to work with anyone who wants to keep the centre open but was not in favour of a petition.

He said: “I’m in favour of trying to find a solution. A petition with 39 names on it is not going to change minds, so I’m working with the CCG on another solution. We don’t want there to be less facilities and anything new we want to be as good if not better.”

Meanwhile Steve Townsend, clinical chair at the CCG, defended the plans and said they were designed to support a stretched service.

He said: “I can understand that people are concerned, but it should be borne in mind that the pilot is only scheduled to last for six months to relieve winter pressures. “It is designed to support overstretched family doctors and to boost community nursing, supporting vulnerable patients to keep them safe, well and at home this winter.”

He added: “It is the job of the CCG to ensure that taxpayers’ money is being spent appropriately.

“Having undertaken a thorough analysis of the number and type of attendances at the Bitterne Walk in Centre where we recorded relatively low numbers of attendees, many of whom had minor ailments, it seemed sensible to test ways these staff could be used where they could have maximum impact.”

The centre costs around £1.4m per year but that money will now be used to fund the pilot project.

n To view the petition, visit thepetitionsite.com/544/790/527/bitterne-walk-in-centre-closure-please-think-again/#sign.