CALLS for Malton Hospital to become one of two new urgent-care centres were made at a public meeting.

Local people were invited to share views on plans to revamp urgent-health services and quiz members of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), including Malton-based GP Dr Clive Diggory, Dr Peter Billingsley and Simon Cox – at Ryedale District Council’s office last Wednesday.

The CCG plans to replace existing urgent-care services with two integrated centres, one in Scarborough and the other in Ryedale.

The current system features the minor-injuries unit at Malton Hospital, a walk-in service at Castle Health, in Scarborough, and the GP outof- hours service, from 6.30pm to 8am.

Councillor Lindsay Burr, who fronted a campaign to re-instate opening hours at Malton Minor Injuries Unit, said: “We now want to secure the long-term effectiveness of Malton Hospital and for improvements to be made to services.”

Questions were raised over the availability of X-ray equipment and GPs at the centres, as well as pharmacy services.

Dr Billingsley said that the aim was to have a seamless system between the urgentcare centres and GPs.

He said: “We want people to feel like they are going to their doctors’ surgery and that they are familiar.”

Norton resident and former councillor Howard Keal added: “People want to see this happen at Malton Hospital.”

The meeting is part of a 12-week public engagement initiative, which launched at the beginning of January and ends on March 30.

Feedback will be used by the CCG to develop the new service, which will launch in April 2015.