Cut to Trowbridge Minor Injuries Unit

According to Wiltshire Health & Care (WHC), which manages Trowbridge Minor Injury Unit (MIU), not enough people are getting injured in the area to justify keeping the unit staffed overnight.

In a report paradoxically entitled, "A proposal for a secure, sustainable and consistent Minor Injuries Unit service for Wiltshire", WHC explain that only 2.3 people visit on average per night, and some of these are sick rather than injured. This means each visit costs £117, compared with £21 during the day, when people can get injured more efficiently.

WHC also say they've had staffing problems which have led to occasional unscheduled closures of the MIU, so closing it overnight will solve that problem. This leads to greater predicability for patients - people will know it's closed every night so they won't be surprised to find it so.

WHC say they won't save any money through the change, and then go on to say how they'll spend the money they save. This would include recruiting and training more staff to look after the rapidly increasing population of West Wiltshire.

They provide a statistical analysis of current injury patterns, which show the most dangerous time of day in Trowbridge is 9am.

Opening hours under the new system will be 7am to 11pm. WC's Health Scrutiny Committee are being asked to approve the change at their meeting on Tuesday Sept 27th.

Agenda (See 'supplement')