Minor injury units to stay closed for 3 more months

THREE minor injuries units in Gloucestershire will remain closed for another three months.

Tewkesbury Hospital, Vale Hospital and the Dilke temporarily shut their Minor Injuries and Illness Units (MIIUs) in March to cope with pressure caused by the coronavirus.

Beds across the county’s community hospitals were designated as red and green areas to support patient flow, and the opening hours of other MIIUs were reduced.

Yesterday Gloucestershire’s health overview and scrutiny committee gave the nod to the local NHS’s plan to extend the closure of the three hospitals for another three months.

MIIUs in Lydney, Stroud, Cirencester and the North Cotswolds will stay open from 8am until 6pm every day of the week until further notice.

The inpatient hospital services at these sites will be unaffected.

Angela Potter, director of strategy and partnerships at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, told the committee: “Since we have instigated those changes, we remain with an issue of resilience.

“Resilience has improved; there have been a significant reduction in closure due to staff shortage as a consequence of the implementation of the reduced sites.

“But we do have ongoing concerns in terms of environmental factors and the need to manage flow through the units from a social distancing perspective.

“We have had no incidents or complaints on the implementation as a result of the changes, and we’ve been able to manage safely the flow through the units.

“It is fair to say activity levels remain significantly below normal as a result of a public awareness of the heightened risk, and indeed the different change in behaviours.

“At the moment we are in a situation whereby we would wish to retain current changes. We will be able to move the three units which are closed to an 8am to 8pm opening hours so that we are returning them to an extended period of time.

“But we don’t feel that we are in a position to reopen the other three during the three-month requested extension.”