DARLINGTON’S walk-in urgent care centre is relocating to the Memorial Hospital next week.

The town’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) says that the decision to move the NHS Urgent Care Centre from Doctor Piper House on King Street to the hospital will benefit patients.

The centre will be located alongside the hospital’s Emergency Department and will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Andrea Jones, Chair of NHS Darlington CCG, said: “The co-location of the urgent care centre at Darlington Memorial Hospital is part of the CCG’s vision for an integrated urgent care service.

“Urgent care services are there to deal with problems requiring prompt medical attention but are not life threatening.

“Moving the Urgent Care Centre to Darlington Memorial Hospital offering a 24-hour service has a number of benefits.

“It allows staff to assess patients and decide whether they need to be seen by urgent care or in A&E.

“Urgent care staff can arrange blood tests, X-rays and scans if necessary and seek specialist opinion.”

Ms Jones said that A&E departments are designed to deal with trauma, accidents and life threatening emergency but are often used by people who should be going to their GP or visiting a pharmacy first.

She added: “Rather than discourage people seeking medical help who turn up at A&E, we intend to increase the availability of routine services, so that patients receive the right care at the right time in the right place.”

The Urgent Care Centre’s move into the hospital will take place on Wednesday, December 14 and is the culmination of a long-held plan by the CCG.

In the summer of 2012 the group reduced Doctor Piper’s opening hours to 8am to 5pm, with the overnight service transferred to the Memorial Hospital.

At time health bosses said the decision was made partly due to the low numbers of people using the service overnight but it did prompt fears among some members of the public that it signalled the start of the walk-in centre’s winding down.

The Urgent Care Centre opened at Doctor Piper House, in Darlington in 2005, at a cost of £2m with a remit to offer healthcare to non-emergency patients without an appointment.