PEOPLE needing urgent medical help at night will have to drive to Bath in the near future, as Trowbridge and Chippenham minor injuries units will soon begin closing at 11pm in a move critics have called ‘indefensible.’
Trowbridge hospital is currently open 24 hours a day and Chippenham until midnight but both will soon reduce their opening hours to 7am to 11pm because they don’t have enough staff.
The move means that people in Westbury who need treatment at night will have to make the 40+ minute drive to the next closest hospital, the RUH in Bath – more than double the distance to Trowbridge.
Local healthcare campaigner, Andy Milroy, and leader of Trowbridge Town Council, cllr Bob Brice, wrote in an open letter this week, “The recent decision to close Trowbridge Minor Injury Unit (MIU) at night is a very dangerous precedent and means that potentially any health service in Wiltshire could be closed arbitrarily with no public consultation.
“The Trowbridge MIU is the only all-night minor injury facility providing a service throughout the night in the whole of West and North Wiltshire.
“Many patients do come from Trowbridge, but also from Warminster, Westbury and Bradford on Avon, as well as from Frome, Melksham and Devizes. From Warminster and Westbury the long journey to the RUH in the middle of the night would be a considerable added stress; it will mean a much longer journey for patients already suffering pain and discomfort.
“Just a year or so ago it was stated that the quality of care across the country is being compromised because A&E units cannot cope with the numbers of patients who go to hospitals, often with minor ailments. This is exactly what minor injury units are supposed to prevent. Passing the buck is no solution!
“Emergency services like minor injury and accident and emergency units are vital and are of great public concern. To axe such a crucial service operating when people are at their most vulnerable – at night – is indefensible, and to do so without any public consultation is extremely ill-considered and arbitrary.”
A spokesperson for Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said, “Patient attendance overnight at Wiltshire’s two minor injuries units is extremely low and it has been difficult to ensure the MIUs can be staffed properly, due to a shortage of staff with the right training who are able treat minor injuries and deliver safe patient care.
“Additionally, many of those people who attend during the night time present with minor illness, meaning that they are referred to the 24 hours Out of Hours GP service.
“Over a 91 day period from January – March 2016 there were average overnight attendances of 2.3 at Trowbridge MIU and 0.6 at Chippenham MIU. The impact of this has been greatest at Trowbridge MIU, where there have also recently been 28 overnight closures due to lack of appropriate staffing.”
Douglas Blair, managing director of Wiltshire Health and Care – a partnership of the Bath, Swindon and Salisbury major hospital trusts – said, “Continuity of the existing arrangements at Trowbridge and Chippenham MIUs is not sustainable if we’re to provide an effective service that meets the current and future needs of local communities. That means being able to properly staff our units during the day time when people most require the services they provide.”
Tracey Cox, interim accountable officer at Wiltshire CCG said, “The revised opening times for Trowbridge and Chippenham MIUs will ensure there are no more unplanned closures at night time, will make better use of nurse resource during the day when attendances to the MIUs are at their highest, and means clearer communication for the public as to when the MIUs are open.”
