23.03.17
CCG to close minor injury units alongside urgent service alterations
Minor injuries units across the East Riding of Yorkshire CCG region will be closed down and replaced by three urgent care centres at hospitals in Beverley, Bridlington and Goole, it has been revealed.
The CCG states that the change will improve patient experience, as it was also announced that an integrated community and intensive rehabilitation centre would be set up in Beverley and supported by Time to Think Beds. This will also result in current community hospital beds in Bridlington and Withernsea closing.
The action taken by the CCG reflects recommendations made in a report published last week designed to inform and aid the Governing Body before they made any major decisions with service alterations.
Alex Seale, director for commissioning and transformation for NHS East Riding of Yorkshire CCG, said: “We want to provide consistent and high quality urgent care that best meets the need of the whole of the East Riding.
“The urgent care centres at Beverley, Bridlington and Goole will offer consistent opening for 16 hours a day and 365 days a year.”
Seale also pressed that there would still be “a consistent range of advice and treatment available, including access to x-ray, for all minor injuries with no variation between centres”, adding that “people will know that when they arrive at an urgent care centre it will be open and they will be seen”.
“The three urgent care centres will be supported by booked urgent care appointments for low-level minor injuries, made available at Alfred Bean Hospital in Driffield and at Withernsea Community Hospital,” he explained.
The news was not received wholly positively by some, as MP for Beverley and Holderness Graham Stuart tweeted that the decision “flies in the face of what people in Beverley and Holderness want”.
But Jane Hawkard, chief officer for NHS East Riding of Yorkshire CCG, said that leaders had listened to concerns raised in public consultations and took their responsibility to consider these issues very seriously.
“This is why we are including a range of enhancements to our original proposals,” Hawkard said. “As part of recent changes to community health services, 8 to 8 centres are being introduced in Driffield, Withernsea and Hessle.”
These new centres will be open from 8am until 8pm, focusing on providing a range of planned and proactive community care services.
“People will still be able to access some outpatient appointments and where appropriate have wounds dressed in their local hospital, as they do now,” said Hawkard. “In addition, as a response to the consultation, the 8 to 8 centres in Withernsea and Driffield will have some same day urgent appointments made available for people to book into if they have low level minor injury issues. This will be available to access through NHS111.”
She added that the rationale for the decision partly came from data which suggested that as well as the fact that very few people used the centre, many patients were only using the minor injury unit for advice and guidance rather than medical help.
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