TENBURY Town Council is resigned to losing 24-hour-a-day minor injuries cover in the town.

Councillor Sue Corfield, a former mayor of Tenbury, told a meeting of the town council that although there was a consultation in progress about the future of the minor injuries unit at Tenbury Community Hospital, she believes the decision to cut opening hours has been made.

She said that there had been incidents where cover staff had been brought in from Ireland, only to have no patients during the night hours.

George Price, another former mayor, said that it was unfortunate but that if the unit only received five patients a week at night it did not make sense.

A Tenbury GP has also joined the debate on the future of the minor injuries unit at the town’s community hospital.

Dr Silvana McCaffrey is backing a proposal by health chiefs to reduce the opening hours of the unit.

“A minor injuries unit is for the treatment of minor injuries: cuts, sprains, minor fractures, minor scalds and burns,” she said.

“It is not an accident and emergency department. Patients often do not make this distinction and particularly use the MIU at night when they have potentially serious illnesses which an MIU nurse would not have the skills to fully assess and treat.

“Recruiting qualified staff to maintain night cover has been impossible and the resulting use of agency nurses has incurred unacceptable costs. There are health needs that are yet to be met in our locality and funding an MIU that sees less than one patient per night is not an appropriate use of resources.”

Time is running out for people who want to have a say on a proposal to reduce the opening hours at the Minor Injuries Unit at Tenbury Community Hospital.

A consultation meeting has been held and those people want a say have until the end of next week (December 14) to have their opinion heard.

The unit at Tenbury Community Hospital is currently open for 24 hours a day, seven days a week providing services to people from South Worcestershire, Shropshire and Herefordshire.

There is a proposal to reduce the opening times to 9am until 9pm, seven days a week.

According to health chiefs during the last 12 months 88% of all attendances at Tenbury MIU were during these proposed hours.

They say Minor Injury Units are there to treat things like cuts, grazes, minor burns and strains.

The unit at Tenbury Hospital is not equipped with x-ray facilities, access to scans, blood tests or doctors overnight so if people attend with issues the unit is not equipped to help them with, it could delay getting the care they need could also put patients at greater risk according to health chiefs.

This makes staffing the unit with appropriately trained nurses overnight extremely expensive given the low numbers they are likely to see. This has also led to problems recruiting the necessary trained staff as those with these qualifications often prefer to work in busier emergency units.

To have a say on the proposals residents can pick up a questionnaire from the hospital or the local GP surgery and return it to the freepost address provided, fill out the questionnaire online at www.hacw.nhs.uk/tenburymiu or call The Trust on 01905 681502.