Cannock's minor injuries unit stays open
The under-threat minor injuries unit at Cannock Hospital will be kept open - but the hours it operates will be reduced, under new plans revealed today.
Doctors on cash-strapped Cannock Chase Commissioning Group had planned to shut the Minor Injuries Unit in a bid to save £750,000.
But health bosses then came up with revised plans to get GPs to run the service following a public outcry. Council chiefs though said the proposals were 'wishy washy' and ordered a review to be carried out to see what was feasible.
The specially-formed working group looked at all options including closing the unit, keeping it open or drafting in GPs.
It has now recommended that the unit should remain open but with reduced hours. Under the plans, it would open from 11am to 7pm, seven days per week. It is currently open from 8am until midnight.
A GP out-of-hours service would begin at 6.30pm until 8am the following day to deal with minor illness.
Bosses say the majority of patients currently attend between 9am and 7pm but staying open between these hours would span more than one shift pattern and 'therefore would incur higher staffing costs', bosses say.
The unit would continue to be staffed by two nurses and one receptionist
A report by the CCG states: "This option offers the least disruption to the patients of Cannock whilst allowing the CCG to realise an acceptable level of financial savings.
"This option aligns with the goals and values of the CCG and forms part of a wider work stream to address the emergency and urgent care system across the county, whilst allowing further development work to commence in primary care around improving access and capacity for patients."
The CCG is suffering from a cash crisis and is overspending by £9 million a year.
Health bosses say the unit can take up to 20,000 patients a year but it is attracting only 16,414.
Of those, 76 per cent are able to be treated by a doctor or have to be sent to away to another hospital.
Residents feared the closure of the service would add more pressure on A&E and doctors' surgeries.
CCG boss Andrew Donald has said the unit in its present form 'does not deliver what is required and in the tight fiscal environment the sustaining of a service which does so not deliver what is required is difficult'.
The plans will be discussed by Staffordshire County Council's healthy Staffordshire select committee on Monday.
