Somerset hospital unit to shut over safety concerns

The overnight MIU service runs with minimal staffing

A community hospital in Somerset is to close its overnight service because of fears that it may be causing delays in treating serious conditions.

The Minor Injury Unit (MIU) at Minehead Community Hospital will temporarily stop seeing patients between 21:00 BST and 08:00 BST from 1 July.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said it had concerns over the safety of the out-of-hours service.

It will close for four months to allow a review of night-time provision.

Health managers said they were concerned that patients with serious conditions such as heart attack, stroke or major trauma may actually be delayed in getting emergency care if they attended the MIU overnight.

'Difficult decision'

The trust said: "There have been three examples in the last three years when patient outcomes were compromised because of a delay in receiving treatment at an emergency department."

During the day paramedics can quickly pass serious cases on to senior clinicians at the hospital but that is not the case for the out-of-hours service.

Dr Matt Hayman, deputy medical director for the trust, said: "We have concerns about the safety of the service which is why we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close the unit overnight for four months."

"We need to take the time to review the service... to look at how we address those safety concerns and meet the overnight needs of the local area," he said.

The Minehead MIU is one of seven across the county, which together see around 105,000 patients each year, but it has seen an average of fewer than one patient per night over the past three years.

The night-time service is staffed by one paramedic and one healthcare assistant and provides first aid and advice rather than a full assessment and treatment.

The trust advises that people who need attention for a minor injury overnight should call 111 and for serious or life threatening conditions they should call 999.