Minor Injury Units Opening Hours Reduced in Powys due to Financial and Staffing Issues

OUT of hours treatment at Minor Injury Units (MIU) at hospitals in Powys is set to cease soon following a reduction of opening hours.
At a meeting of Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) on Wednesday, July 24 proposals to the opening hours of MIUs n the county were put in front of members.
The change is needed due to financial and staffing issues that are affecting PTHB.
They health board are already predicting that they will be posting a budget deficit of just under £23million this year.
Currently there are four minor injury units in the county one based at Welshpool’s Victoria Memorial Hospital, which is open daily from 8am to 8pm, a second is based at Ystradgynlais Community Hospital which is open from 8.30am to 4.30pm from Monday to Friday.
The changes will not affect these two MIU’s.
But the MIU based at the Breconshire War Memorial Hospital in Brecon, which is open 24 hours, would see its opening time become 8am to 8pm.
Similarly, the MIU based at the County War Memorial Hospital in Llandrindod Wells would see it’s opening hours dropped from 7am to 12am to 8am to 8pm.
Executive medical director, Dr Wright said:  “We have different provision in each of our MIUs.
“We know that the two out of hours provision in Llandrindod and Brecon are seeing one or two patients a night at present which is not good use of clinical time and not particularly good for patients.”
She explained that while they deal with walk in patients emergency departments are asking people to phone first and explain their symptoms which allows them to “triage” the patient and get them to the “right place at the right time.”
“The other issue is staffing difficulties,” said Dr Wright.
She explained that overnight provision had been closed overnight at short notice with the health board having to alert the public to this closure on social media.
Dr Wright said: “That’s happened 50 times over the last five months.
“We believe that it will allow us to bring our staff together and having a more reliable and predictable service”.
She added that the cost of seeing a patient during the day is between £60 to £80, while overnight the cost is £300.
Dr Wright said:  “So there’s a significant financial benefit to not providing the overnight service to those one or two patients.”
PTHB chief executive Hayley Thomas said: “What I’m hearing is what does this mean for other hospitals and other areas, at this point in time the two changes (MIU and patient groupings) is it.”
But she added that “further work” was being done to investigate other proposals both in the short and longer term.
PTHB chairman, Dr Carl Cooper said: “This is a journey and part of our moving towards agreeing a sustainable model that will provide safe, quality services into the future for the people of Powys.”
The board unanimously agreed the proposal which is set to be implemented from September and are to be in place initially for a “temporary” six-month period.
PTHB are due to embark on a public “engagement exercise” next week to publicise the changes. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​