A date has been given for the reopening of Bracknell Healthspace at Brants Bridge as a walk-in centre.

Walk-in services were closed in March last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and since then, the facility has been mainly used for those who have booked appointments.

While those seeking ‘on the spot’ treatment could receive it in an emergency, patients had been urged to use the NHS 111 phone service in the first instance.

Brants Bridge is now set to reopen within a week, after opening dates were revealed in a council meeting.

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Councillor Dale Birch the Conservative executive member for Health, said: “Brants Bridge will reopen on July 15. If it’s not the 15th it could the 19th, because they need to make sure it is fully and properly staffed, and of the issues they’ve had recently is with finding radiographers.

“It will be for walk-in, however, the new emphasis will be on booked appointments and advising the public to phone ahead. I’m pleased to announce Brants Bridge will be with us again, on the 15th, staffing levels permitting, and if not the 19th.”

There was some drama at the council meeting over the status of Brants Bridge. In order to qualify as an urgent care centre, the healthspace would need to have a doctor staffed on site.

Cllr Malcolm Tullett (who was formerly a Conservative, but now sits as an Independent) asked Cllr Birch: “Do you know whether that will actually be an urgent care centre bearing in mind you can’t make appointments for urgent care?”

Cllr Birch answered: “All I’ve been told is that it’s opening on the 15th, possibly the 19th, it will deal with minor injuries and illnesses, so it will deal with urgent care, but the model they are going to try and emphasise to residents is to contact 111 first, before coming, in the hope of being able to schedule people in more efficiently and effectively.

“As stated in April, they are unlikely to be turning people away on the doorstep.”

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Cllr Tullett and Cllr Tony Virgo (Conservative) have expressed concerns that the level of care at Brants Bridge had been ‘downgraded’ due to the reduced walk-in function and the potential lack of doctors being staffed at the site.

In reply to their concerns, Cllr Birch said: “I was hoping that people would be pleased to hear what I’ve just announced and what I’ve been fighting for for some time. As to the term ‘downgraded’ I don’t think that’s really appropriate our residents will get the best possible service they can.”

Pressing Cllr Birch, Cllr Virgo ask: “Was the executive member aware, or  agreed to the fact that this has been downgraded to minor injuries?”

He added that when he contacted the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in charge of he was told it would be staffed by nurses, rather than a medical doctor.

In response, Cllr Birch said: “I have passed on what the director of the CCG responsible for Brants Bridge told me. The council and I are not responsible for Brants Bridge. The internal operations are for the CCG to determine. I was not aware of any reconfiguring of the medical staff, that’s an operational level situation.”

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While care at Brants Bridge is provided by the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, care at the centre is planned and paid for by the Frimley CCG. The Local Democracy Reporting Service has asked the CCG for a statement on the reopening of Brants Bridge.

The reopening dates were given to councillors at a meeting of Bracknell Forest Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Commission on Thursday, July 8.

You can view how the meeting unfolded in the Twitter thread below: 

Cllr Birch had been given the go ahead to announce the dates by Fiona Slevin Brown, a managing director for Bracknell Forest Council and a lead for emergency care at Frimley collaborative CCGs.

The information was given after the chairman of the commission Cllr Robert Angell wrote to Cllr Birch asking for an update on the situation at Brants Bridge.