Will the proposed new healthcare centres be open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week to support the work of a locality hospital?
Only if such opening is an effective use of clinical and support staff time. For example, it could be very effective for a walk-in centre at a new health centre to be open 24-hours a day, if that meant that people with minor injuries or general health concerns could be seen in a town centre location rather than attend the main accident and emergency or urgent care unit at the nearest acute hospital. Conversely, there would be no point in providing 24-hour access to diagnostic services if there was no-one there to interpret results or advise on appropriate action.
