Closing minor injuries unit a disgrace - residents

A decision over future of the minor injuries unit is set to be made next week

Residents in a town where NHS bosses look set to permanently shut a minor injuries unit have described the plan as "a disgrace".

The unit at Altrincham General Hospital was shut in 2020 and never reopened due to a national shortage of specialist emergency nurses.

Regional NHS bosses in Greater Manchester are set to decide on its future next week after a review recommended it close for good.

Patients would be directed to nearby Wythenshawe hospital but resident Pauline Smith, 76, said closing it down would put Wythenshawe staff "under more pressure".

Brian Denbigh said he could not travel to Wythenshawe after having a stroke

Plans to shut the department came after a review recommended "stand-alone" units should not be recommissioned to help address "the often confusing mix of urgent care services" in hospitals.

But councillors in Trafford have been fighting to get it reopened and the borough’s watchdog health scrutiny committee has now called for a high-level public consultation before it is condemned.

Altrincham and Sale MP Connor Rand stood up in the Commons on Thursday and used his maiden speech to call for the unit to be saved.

He told fellow MPs the minor injuries unit was "a service that was relied upon by my constituents" until it shut in 2020.

On the streets of the town in the south of Trafford opposition to the unit’s closure was unequivocal, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ellie Mae Constance said Wythenshawe was too far away for her to travel

Another resident, Ellie Mae Constance, 75, said she would struggle to get to Wythenshawe Hospital.

Standing outside the hospital, waiting for a taxi, she said: “They definitely need to open it back up. Sending people to Wythenshawe is no good. I have a mobility scooter, but it’s too far away to go on that.”

"They seem to send people all over the place," Pauline Smith, 76, said.

But Kenny Caune, 27, said he could see why bosses wanted to close the unit as "sometimes there are people wanting emergency treatment that don’t really need it".

Kenny Caune says he fears the NHS will one day be replaced by a US-style system.

Rob Fosbrok, 69, said they should not shut this unit.

"I’m retired, but if you working, the last thing you need is to be going out to somewhere like Wythenshawe,” he said.

Friends Alexa Hodkinson-Bentley and Veronica Morris, both 18, also want the minor injuries unit reopened.

“It would be more practical to have the unit here,” said Alexa. “Wythenshawe might not be that far away, but it takes ages to get there.”

Veronica added: “The roads to Wythenshawe are not good.”

Brian Denbigh, 80, who lives in Timperley, said "closing the minor injuries unit down is madness.”

He said he could not travel to Wythenshawe after he had a stroke.

Another woman said it was "a disgrace" the unit had not reopened yet.