ONLY eight members of the public turned up to the first in a series of consultation meetings on the future of an NHS walk-in centre in Southampton.

Health officials staged last night’s meeting to gauge public views about cutting the hours of the Bitterne Walk-in Centre.

It followed four months of uncertainty over the centre which had been threatened with closure. A similar centre in Shirley closed last year.

City NHS chiefs were grilled about the need for a proposed reduction in opening hours and were accused of wanting to slash the costs of the £1.5m-a-year service.

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NHS Southampton City chief executive Bob Deans insisted that the proposals were “not just about money”, but addressed a duplication of services already provided by GP surgeries, such as the treatment of minor illness for which the majority of people use the centre.

The health trust has proposed either opening the centre on weekends and bank holidays to save £600,000 a year, or with the addition of weekday evenings, to save £400,000.

Health officials outnumbered residents who turned out to the meeting at the Eastpoint Centre in Thornhill.

A health spokesman said that the event had been well publicised to hundreds of interested individuals as well as community groups and local GP surgeries.

Campaigners have vowed to continue a fight to stop any cuts to what they describe as a “vital” service. The consultation runs until February 11, 2011.