OUTRAGE has greeted the news that Okehampton Hospital's minor injuries unit will not be providing night-time cover from next Monday. Minor injuries units in all Devon's community hospitals will shut after 6pm to help reduce Devon Primary Care Trust's deficit of £7.6-million. But it is feared the move will put lives at risk. The changes are being made on a temporary basis ahead of a full review of the service, and local people are being urged to mount a campaign against them. Minor injuries units will open from 10am to 6pm but some treatment centres, including Tavistock, where staff are trained to deal with a wider range of minor injuries and illnesses, will open from 8am to 10pm. Patients will have to travel to general hospitals in Exeter or Barnstaple outside these hours. Okehampton Medical Practice manager Alison Shelton said all the staff were 'appalled' by the decision. 'We heard the news on Monday and the changes take effect next week. We have had no consultation on this and are appalled because our aim is to keep people in the community,' she said. 'I have been working very hard over the past year to look at systems of keeping patients in the community, primarily for the improvement of patient care but also as a knock-on effect to save the NHS money. It is actually cheaper to treat patients here in Okehampton.' County councillor and member of the hospital League of Friends Christine Marsh said it was ridiculous to cut back services in a town which was increasing in population terms at the rate Okehampton was. She said: 'If this is the first of the many changes the new centralised Devon PCT is going to make to improve the service then thanks very much — what have we got to look forward to next? The closure of the MI unit, maternity or even the hospital? 'I am horrified by these cuts. Okehampton hospital covers a large area and we have been encouraged by the PCT to use our community hospitals because they save the NHS money. 'After all the excellent work that medical staff do, this is like kicking them in the teeth.' Cllr Marsh encouraged people to write letters and voice their concern loudly over the reduction in hours. GP Paul Nielson, who spearheaded the campaign for the new hospital, said there was no doubt that the cuts in minor injuries units would lead directly to increased death rates. Dr Nielson said: 'Only last week the nurse in Okehampton's unit saved two lives with great clinical skill. These skills will be lost to the people of Okehampton and how will the overworked ambulance service cope with the inevitable increase in demand? 'The people of Okehampton and elsewhere in Devon must fight to prevent the loss of these services. It is their lives and those of their friends that are now at risk.' Devon Primary Care Trust chief executive Kevin Snee said standardising opening times was necessary to make the best use of resources. 'The new trust is taking a long hard look at the services it provides,' he said. 'The overwhelming majority of people use this service during the day or early evening so in the present circumstances it simply doesn't make sense to go on providing a service that is used so little.' He said across Devon even the busiest MIU treats fewer than three people a night and the interim opening times would free up nurses and other staff for daytime MIU and ward-based care. 'The changes only affect overnight provision and I would like to make it clear that if anyone has a minor injury or is asked to attend one of our centres during the day, their first port of call should continue to be their local MIU or treatment centre. 'It is important to remember that MIUs are not accident and emergency centres.'
