£40 million package for new walk-in centres

11.31.29am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 24th Jul 2003

Vincent Cable MP for Twickenham

Responding to the Minister's announcement that Teddington Memorial Hospital will be one of the 11 new centres across providing a walk in service. MP Vincent Cable said: "this is very good news for the hospital and for our area as five years ago there were genuine worries about the future of Teddington Memorial Hospital as the smallest Trust hospital in Britain but it has gone from strength to strength and established that there is a real need for small community hospitals which are part of the local community and have easy access."

"The details of the walk in centre proposals are as yet rather vague but it will mean that people struggling to get an appointment with their GP or who want quick easy advice without a long wait will now have a local centre to go to. Just as the small injuries unit is helping to take a lot of pressure off the big district hospitals like Kingston and the West Mid so this walk in centre should help reduce some of the pressure on doctors' surgeries in the area."