People in BRACKNELL have vented their frustrations at a perceived ‘lack of services’ being provided at Bracknell Healthspace.

The Healthspace at Brants Bridge used to serve as a Walk-In urgent care centre, where patients could enter without an appointment.

However, this walk-in function was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Councillors in Bracknell have expressed concern that residents are unaware of the changes. Members of the public are calling for the walk-in function to be re-instated and for Bracknell to have its own Accident & Emergency service.

READ MORE: Is Bracknell's Healthspace a Walk In Centre? 'Downgrade' of Brants Bridge criticised

The biggest concern was over the distance of Berkshire’s other hospitals from Bracknell.

Ollieblog, a commenter on the Bracknell News website,  said:  “I don’t know what that place does and guess I never will. Instead we’re going 10 miles one way or another or even further in the case of Wexham Park, sometimes with people who are too frail to travel in a car and as for public transport to any of these places there is none.”

Agreeing, fellow commenter mobaby said: “Access to Wexham Park Hospital by public transport from Bracknell gets a whole lot harder as from this week (29/05/21) as the bus service has been cut to just one every two hours, that means an appointment with a consultant which may last only 15 minutes involves being out for over half a day just outrageous.

“The question has to be asked who has made this decision is it the council cutting back on subsidising this service or the bus company? With no A&E near Bracknell we need a local hospital for quick treatment and less travel involved.”

Bracknell News:

Another commenter argued that -regardless of whether there plans to build an A&E at Heatherwood Hospital- a new A&E department is needed in the county.

Lady Rushton said: “I believe that the new Heatherwood hospital would be getting an A&E. But this is not the point. With the influx of people coming into Berkshire, especially this area Bracknell, we need another A&E. Bracknell Healthspace is so big and when you enter it, there’s hardly any medical facilities available like you would expect in a walk-in centre to have, this should be an extension to a hospital of necessity. The rates on this building must be astronomical so therefore why was it built if not to accommodate the people that need certain medical facilities. So this is not fit for purpose.

“Yet again we are not being accommodated for. This building should be for everyone, especially those who can only get to this walk in centre, this would be a godsend as quite rightly the elderly people and people who rely on public transport which is also appalling would not be able to get to a proper hospital, so why did they not convert this to accommodate everyone. Another wasted building and at taxpayers expense.”

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Marc Waller also criticised the service level of service provided at Bracknell Healthspace. He said: “When it was open for walk ins, it was a struggle to get to see anyone. I went there after an accident as I had a severely swollen wrist. They tried to get me to go elsewhere as they said they had no x-ray machine on site but eventually allowed me to see someone. They then gave me an X-Ray on the supposedly non existent X-Ray machine!”

However, Dennis Lloyd, commenting on Facebook, argued that the closure of walk-in centres were justified. He said: “It’s about time people realised that triggered by Covid, most situations are now by ‘appointment only’ which is more controlled and I hope it stays that way. Gone are the days when you can just turn up and the British way of queuing which is so 20th century. Times are changing, get real people.”

Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care System (ICS), which runs services at Bracknell Healthspace, said the site ‘remains an important facility in local healthcare’.

A spokesman previously said that the suspension of the walk-in access was originally due to the pandemic but remains ‘suspended for the current time’.

Adding: “Face-to-face appointments are provided based on patient’s assessed clinical need. Anyone with non-urgent medical concerns should continue to contact their GP practice or visit their local pharmacy for help and advice.”

Urgent appointments can be booked via NHS 111 over the phone or online.

Three hospitals provide accident and emergency care near Bracknell: the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Frimley Park Hospital in Frimley, Surrey and Wexham Park Hospital in Slough.

Plans for a £20 million Bracknell hospital in Skimped Hill which first surfaced in 2010 were withdrawn last year because they were never acted upon.