Cannock hospital unit now saved
The under-threat Minor Injuries Unit at Cannock Hospital is to be saved with a reduced service, it was 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 after public anger at the plans health bosses are now proposing GPs take over the service and man it between 1pm and 6pm with an out-of-hours provider running the centre until midnight and at weekends.
They are proposing to rename the service the Cannock Primary Care Access Centre or similar.
It would predominantly be a minor illness service but the proposal would mean there would be some nurses for minor injuries and the possible use of X-ray machines.
The CCG is suffering from a cash crisis and is overspending by £9 million a year.
Members of the Healthy Staffordshire select committee at Staffordshire County Council will discuss the plans on June 9.
CCG boss Andrew Donald said: "There clearly is concern about these proposals. However, the CCG's position is that the Minor Injuries Unit in its present form does not deliver what is requiredand in the tight fiscal environment the sustaining of a service which does so not deliver what is required is difficult."
"However, since the initial set of proposals a significant level of discussion has been undertaken within the CCG particularly with the GP Clinical Leaders and it has become apparent that there may be alternatives which maintain a unit in Cannock for a large proportion of the time but is provided by the GPs of the CCG."
Cannock Chase Council leader George Adamson has been a vocal opponent to the plans to shut the unit. He said: "It looks like the CCG has listened, which we are grateful for, but on the face of it, it does look like we will be losing some level of service, which is not good enough."
"The people of Cannock Chase should not be punished because the CCG cannot manage its affairs properly.
"We will examine the detail in full when it is produced and see where we go from there."
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 fear the closure of the service will add more pressure on A&E and doctors' surgeries.
