TAVISTOCK Hospital's minor injury unit may re-open 24 hours a day if it is needed, the Devon Primary Care Trust has announced. Overnight cover at the hospital was withdrawn last year because on average fewer than one patient a night used the service. Devon PCT temporarily closed minor injury units overnight in several community hospitals as part of a cost cutting exercise to address a large deficit, but said at the time that it was reviewing all community hospital services. The trust's board will be looking at proposals to re-open units for 24 hours and re-instate evening cover at Okehampton Hospital to 10pm. Tavistock will retain the status quo and be open from 8am to 10pm and will go to 24 hours if a need becomes evident. It is also planned to re-open four beds at Tavistock as and when they are needed. It follows the closure of 51 beds across Devon in December. The trust is now looking to invest £1-million in staffing for re-opening the beds and extending the hours at minor injuries units. The changes are expected to take place before Easter, in time for this year's holiday season, when demand usually rises. They are part of a report that looks at extending the use of community hospitals in Devon and making more services available locally — to save people having to travel to the big acute hospitals in city centres. They include more day treatments such as blood transfusions, more day case surgery, renal dialysis and more outpatient clinics. Tavistock Hospital manager Phillipa Bridle said it was good news that four beds were reopening at Tavistock on a 'flexible' basis but on the whole the people of Tavistock would not have noticed any change in services over the past few months. 'We were not that affected by the cuts because we are bigger and busier than some of the other community hospitals,' she said. 'The demand for the minor injury unit at night was so small anyway — we had less than one patient a night. The busiest time is between 10am and 6pm.'