20.11.18
‘Requires improvement’ trust to shut down minor injury units until April to deal with winter pressure
A Herefordshire NHS trust is temporarily closing its minor injury units for five months to cope with winter pressure.
Ross-on-Wye and Leominster community hospitals will close their minor injury units over winter to allow the Wye Valley NHS Trust – which is currently rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the CQC – to provide better services to seriously ill patients in need of more urgent care at Hereford County Hospital.
The same decision was taken last year at the last minute, but is now being taken as part of a planned strategy which also includes the use a new 24-bed ward in the county hospital, due to open before Christmas.
The trust says that the temporary MIU closures “will allow hospital bosses to redeploy experienced emergency nurse practitioners to provide enhanced support where it is clinically most needed.”
“These extra staff will make a real difference,” said Jon Barnes, chief operating officer at the trust. “We have a duty to provide safe and efficient care to those who most need it - this decision will help us achieve that.”
The trust’s emergency department is only designed to see around 125 patients per day, but often sees more than 180 and has seen days with over 200.
The MIU units will close on 3 December and will reopen in April 2019 and all other services will continue as normal.
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