Leek’s threatened MIU could continue in different form

A town’s threatened minor injuries unit could still continue in a different form and under a different name, health leaders say. NHS commissioners are planning to replace Staffordshire’s minor injuries units and walk-in centres with urgent treatment centres (UTCs), with the stated aim of offering better and more consistent services.

But the MIU at Leek Moorlands Hospital is not currently part of the plans, as it does not meet nationally-set criteria for UTC sites. More than 3,000 people have signed a petition calling for Leek’s MIU to be saved, with campaigners saying it would not be right to expect patients to travel to Stoke-on-Trent for urgent care.

But representatives of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board told Staffordshire Moorlands residents that services currently provided at the MIU could still continue in a different form, even if Leek does not get a UTC. The ICB says no final decision has been taken on the UTCs and any proposals to change services would be subject further consultation.

Clinical director of urgent care Dr Steve Fawcett, speaking at an NHS engagement event at Haregate Community Centre, said the ICB wanted to ensure that people are able to access appropriate services in their local area. Dr Fawcett said: “There’s a national requirement to set up UTCs, but we shouldn’t get hung up about them – we should care more about the services that people need.

“We wouldn’t be allowed to call it an MIU or a walk-in centre, but that doesn’t mean that services can’t continue in various ways. It may be that Leek’s primary care networks can come together to provide those services – it wouldn’t be a UTC, it would be something else. The rules say we can’t call it an MIU. Those aren’t our rules, they were given to us.

“At the moment, 44 patients a day visit the Leek MIU. We want those 44 patients to still be able to access the services they need locally, either at the same venue, or a different one. That’s what I want to see, and I believe that’s what the ICB wants as well.”

Each of the UTCs will be open 12 hours a day and provide a consistent range of services, replacing the varying mix of provision and opening hours at the MIUs and walk-in centres. ICB officials told attendees at the Leek event that Leek Moorlands MIU did not meet a number of nationally-set criteria for UTCs, relating to issues such as accessibility, ambulance access, and booking systems.

For example, UTCs need to be able to receive patients being brought from an ambulance on a stretcher, and have IT systems allowing patients to book appointments via the NHS 111 service. Leek Moorlands currently has neither of these things. UTCs are being proposed for Haywood Hospital in Burlem, Samuel Johnson Community Hospital in Lichfield, and Sir Robert Peel Hospital in Tamworth

Moorlands residents who attended the Leek event said it was vital that a local urgent care service is maintained.

Liz Green, aged 72, from Cheddleton, said: “If they close the MIU in Leek it will just mean more people will go to A&E instead, which is the opposite of what they want. If you go all the way to the Haywood, you could end up being told that you need to go to A&E, so you’d just go straight there instead. It will be even worse for people living further out in the Moorlands, in places like Longnor, especially if they don’t have private transport.

Adam Prince, from Swythamley, said: “Public transport links to Stoke-on-Trent are very poor and so people without a car would have to get a taxi. And they talk about patients being able to go to pharmacies, but there are pharmacies open on Sundays or out-of-hours here.”