Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS chiefs have responded to last summer’s wave of public protest at plans to close East Cambridgeshire and Fenland’s minor injury units at Ely, Doddington and Wisbech.
In a welcome development, the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has announced that it is proposing to pilot ‘Local Urgent Care Service hubs’ in each of these three locations, starting this spring.
The first phase of these ‘hubs’ will be to add GPs to the Minor Injury Unit nurse practitioner teams from Monday to Friday, and increase the range of patients and conditions to be seen and treated locally. The CCG hopes to improve integration between Minor Injury Unit staff and the GP ‘out of hours’ service at weekends, so that more patients can choose local services instead of travelling to A&E when they do not need to.
The pilot phase will help shape future decisions about the service. In the longer term, the CCG hopes to be able to
- integrate services, which are currently fragmented, into local service hubs which are easier for patients to understand
- standardise opening times
- increase and strengthen existing links with A&E, ambulatory care (where patients receive hospital treatment without needing to be admitted), and other acute specialties such as orthopaedics
- support general practice to continue to be able to offer a wide variety of services for their patients
- make most efficient use of resources
- develop local but cost effective solutions for the rural geography.
Healthwatch Cambridgeshire has been invited to the CCG’s internal planning group, and when there is formal agreement to take these pilots forward, the CCG will update patient groups, local representatives and staff on how they can be involved. Any permanent proposals would be opened to formal consultation.
This is very encouraging news after many months of uncertainty, and although the future isn’t settled yet, it’s beginning to look a lot more positive than it was six months ago.
I am delighted with this news. I have used Doddington “Out of Hours” GP service on a couple of occasions. My GP also arranged appointments for me there for a Chest X-Ray & for a consultation with a Registrar. I found it much more convenient on all occasions than having to travel to Hinchingbrook and was dealt with very promptly on every occasion. For the “Out of Hours” consultations I was both pleased not to have to use the more costly services to the NHS of A & E and from my phone calls to returning home to Chatteris, via March to collect prescriptions, dealt with in the time alone it would have taken me to travel to Hinchingbrook & back, never mind the waiting time I could have expected for such low priority medical matters. I sincerely hope this trial, is well utilised and becomes the permanent provision.