A GROUP has been set up to co-ordinate and unite efforts to reopen the walk-in centre at Eastham Clinic.

Friends of Eastham NHS Walk-In Centre has been launched and a Facebook page has been set up at www.facebook.com/FriendsOfEasthamNHSWalkInCentre

It is an open page to which residents and members of all community groups and political parties active in the Eastham area can contribute.

The sudden closure of Eastham’s walk-in health centre caused shock in the community last month.

The facility on Eastham Rake was closed to allow staff to be transferred to the A&E department at Arrowe Park Hospital in a effort to reduce waiting times.

After the outrage at the closure, which Wirral South MP Alison McGovern branded “brutal”, Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) chief officer Simon Banks told a meeting called by Wirral Council’s Labour group that the move was only “temporary”.

Since then, calls have been made for Wirral CCG to work with the community to restore the service.

David Bird, secretary of Eastham Labour Party, said: “We campaigners are disappointed that we still haven’t had a response from Wirral CCG to the question we posed to them at their meeting in public on October 3. That’s more than a fortnight ago.

“To remind you, the question was ‘will you work with us, the people of Eastham and its neighbours, to re-provide a Walk-In service in Eastham whilst we together work out, collaboratively, innovative ways for us to restore that very valued service and so that the restoration isn’t victim of crisis management?’

“The ‘reopening’ objective is a shared one and hopefully this initiative will bring us together to achieve that objective.

“The Wirral CCG proclaims that this is their objective too, by frequently using the phrase ‘temporary closure’.

“Come on CCG. Post something on this Facebook page and open a dialogue with us.”

The closure of the walk-in centre has not affected the other services at Eastham Clinic, such as blood tests and dressings.