OPENING hours at Trowbridge Minor Injuries Unit will be cut by 56 hours a week at the start of November it has been decided this week.

The decision to reduce the 24-hour service to 7am-11pm, has been put down to a lack of patients overnight and difficulty in maintaining appropriate staffing levels.

Wiltshire Health & Care – an NHS partnership formed by the RUH, GWH and Salisbury Trusts – who are responsible for the delivery of adult community health services in MIUs, presented their decision on Tuesday to councillors and the Clinical Commissioning Group.

They said the average number of patients visiting the Trowbridge MIU from January to March between the hours of 11pm and 7am stood at 2.3 while the unit was forced to close 28 times from April to September due to lack of suitable staffing cover.

Douglas Blair, managing director of Wiltshire Health & Care, told members of the health select committee at Wiltshire Council: “There has not been a sudden drop or anything but these numbers have remained low. What has also changed is that we are struggling to fill the number of posts we need.

“This is not a cost-cutting exercise. This is about not having staff available and we are committed to providing a good service.”

Other reasons for the closure include creating clearer public communication and better use of resources as it was also confirmed that Chippenham MIU would also see a reduction in their opening hours to the same revised times.

Cllr John Knight, for Trowbridge Central, said while he was initially dismayed at the move, he said the numbers speak volumes. He added: “I wasn’t aware that Trowbridge and Chippenham were experiencing such difficulty in maintaining staff levels and patient demand was so low during night-time.

“Quite understandably there is some concern about the loss of urgent out-of-hours services, however, in the light of current NHS funding difficulties, this seems to make sense.”

The CCG and Wiltshire Health & Care also told the committee that while savings would be made in terms of the cost per patient, where between 7am-11pm is £21 as opposed to £117 overnight, the money would be reinvested into community services.

Ted Wilson, director of community services and joint commissioning at Wiltshire CCG said: “Our responsibility is for patient safety, quality of care and getting value for money. Obviously we had some concerns about the closures but there has been difficulties in getting staff.

“The public do not understand the difference between the services of MIU and this is an opportunity to explain the changes but also educate them about what these services can be used for because people are using it inappropriately.”

A review of the changes, which come into force on November 1, will be carried out at the start of the next financial year.