NHS walk-in centres

National Health Service walk-in centres were introduced in England in 2000. They are primarily led by nurses, have long opening hours, and provide advice and treatment for minor illnesses and injuries. NHS walk-in centres are intended to improve access to primary care and to reduce pressure on other providers of health care, such as general practices.1 A paper in this week's BMJ by Maheswaran and colleagues looks at whether they have achieved this second aim.2

Maheswaran and colleagues conducted an ecological study to determine whether proximity to a walk-in centre was associated with general practices meeting the NHS access target to offer an appointment within 48 hours. Using a series of sophisticated models, they found no evidence that walk-in centres led to shorter waits in general practice.2 This is consistent with several earlier studies, which found no impact of walk-in centres on consultation rates at other healthcare providers.3 4 5

The underlying hypothesis …