Accrington Victoria hospital was founded in 1894 as a cottage hospital. It was paid for by public subscription, not least by people who worked for low wages contributing so much each week from their wages.  Over the years services have been withdrawn from Accrington Victoria, and often the withdrawal of one service has been the reason for the withdrawal of the next.  Hyndburn Labour members have a long history of campaigning to retain services at Accrington Walk in centre along with cross party support.

Recent campaigns:

2013 – Around 40 people, including councillors, residents and patients, patient support groups and Observer staff launched a campaign from outside of the Hospital.

2016 – Then Deputy Leader of the Council, Clare Pritchard launched a second petition backed by the Accrington Observer gathering 4,300 signatures, after revived proposals to replace the Health Access Walk-in Centre, in Accrington Victoria Community Hospital, with a ‘health hub’, were revealed.

Clare: “It’s disappointing that we have to go through this again as the people of Hyndburn made their thoughts pretty clear at the last consultation, we want to retain the walk-in centre.

“It’s an extremely well used and valued service, closing it would put more pressure on already oversubscribed services at the Minor Injuries Unit and the A&E Department at the Royal Blackburn.”

2017 – Activists Chris Reid & Kimberley Whitehead, started a third petition backed again by the Accrington Observer, and organised a protest walk from Acrington Victoria Hospital to Royal Blackburn Hospital to raise awareness of the campaign.  26,000 people signed the petition which led to several stays of executions.  Several key figures backed the campaign including East Lancashire Council Leaders, Graham Jones MP, James Frith MP and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP.

2018 – The GP Walk-in centre closed it’s doors for the last time in June.

Kimberley: “We didn’t get what we wanted but we must remember that this is our community and these are our services and together we need to fight for them.”

“We put on record our thanks to all the volunteers, campaigners countrywide who supported the campaign.  A extra big thank you to the Chorley A&E activists who came along to support us.”

Sadly a year after this campaign we lost Chris Reid.  He was a passionate and dedicated NHS campaiginer and he will be missed.