urgent treatment centre was closed for three weeks up until late June 2024<\/a>. It was then limited to appointment only and on reduced operating hours of 10am to 6pm for seven months, up until March 2025, due to staffing shortages and sickness absence.<\/p>\nThat had also been accompanied by 13 closures at Ripley, four at Whitworth and two in Buxton in June 2024 for \u201csafety reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n
Erewash MP Adam Thompson, responding to the restrictions, said: \u201cI am very disappointed to have been informed that the hours at the Urgent Treatment Centre in Ilkeston have been cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cDerbyshire Community Health Services say that these are temporary restrictions, required to continue providing safe, effective and compassionate care in the face of rising numbers of patients with increasingly complex medical needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter years of hard work and campaigning by many people in Ilkeston, the Urgent Treatment Centre re-opened for walk-ins in March 2025, after having been appointment-only for some time. It\u2019s very sad that walk-ins are now being limited again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s especially disappointing that these restrictions come at a time when the Government has been working to bring healthcare closer to where people live, rather than making it harder to access. This has included major investments in Ilkeston Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not only happening in Ilkeston. Walk-in opening times have also been cut at Ripley, which I know people locally are sometimes also sent to, as well as at Buxton and Whitworth Hospital in Matlock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be seeking a meeting with the Derbyshire Integrated Care Board and have a number of very serious questions to ask. I strongly hope that the urgent treatment centre can be brought back up to full capacity sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHS trust refers to the reduction in walk-in hours as a \u201csmall change\u201d on its website, starting from Monday, August 24<\/p>\n
In its August trust board report, it says the treatment centres remained under pressure due to \u201ccapacity constraints\u201d caused by \u201chigh demand and high acuity\u201d (more severe illness or ailment), with an \u201congoing reliance on temporary staffing\u201d and \u201cfrequent walk-in restrictions\u201d.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said: \u201cFor some time now the recommended first step for anyone seeking urgent medical help is to contact NHS 111 so they can be assessed for their symptoms and directed swiftly to the right place for treatment; sometimes that is an urgent treatment centre where they are offered an appointment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d always recommend contacting NHS 111 first over turning up so we can ensure people get the right care in the right place and we are prepared for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe walk-in option is still available to people for most of the day but we\u2019re open to appointments only during the evening to ensure we can treat everyone effectively during our opening hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no change in our overall opening times or capacity but we need to manage patients safely and ensure our clinical teams are not overwhelmed by unexpected arrivals during the evening up to 8pm.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur clinical teams are always ready to respond in an emergency and signage on our doors explicitly lists the symptoms, including chest pain and severe breathing difficulties, which we should be alerted to at any time during our opening hours so that we can respond immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a duty to our patients and staff in the urgent treatment centres to ensure the care received and given is optimal and this small operational adjustment in the way we receive patients in the evenings is part and parcel of looking after everyone involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a permanent change, rather an interim approach to ensure continued and safe care for local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Urgent treatment centres in Buxton, Ilkeston, Matlock and Ripley will have their walk-in availability restricted Ilkeston Community Hospital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,109217,129412,104,229,120005,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-752167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-ilkeston","tag-matlock","tag-nhs","tag-politics","tag-ripley","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3_i18785876_IH210410B_1_jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n