AN NHS Walk in Centre has been spared the axe following concerns it could be shipped off to Wexham Park Hospital.

It had been claimed in a staff email in June that Upton Hospital in Albert Street, Slough did not always have staff levels to provide a ‘safe’ level of service at the Walk in.

The east Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) disputed the claims and denied the service would be moving away to Wexham Park Hospital in August.

And now it has awarded a new contract to run the Walk in Centre from September, which is the main centre of its kind in Slough. East Berkshire Primary Care Out of Hours has been awarded the contract for a period of 10 months - taking the service away from current provider, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

A spokesperson for the trust said it had run the centre for over 10 years but decided not to reapply for the contract. She said primary care was not one of the core areas of the trust’s business but there were other reasons for the change.

The CCG would not disclose to the Observer how much the new contract was worth as it was ‘commercial’ information in confidence.

Fiona Slevin-Brown, director of strategy and operations for the three east Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Groups, said: “We are delighted to announce the awarding of this contract to East Berkshire Primary Care.

“Over the coming months we will continue the conversation with our patients and partners about the future of local health services to ensure these are designed to improve the health outcomes of local residents.”

The reason for the change in provider at the Walk in has not been disclosed.

Upton provides non-acute NHS services as well as its Walk in.

East Berkshire Primary Care is a non for profit social enterprise.