HEALTH chiefs who sanctioned the overnight closure of Minehead Hospital's minor injuries unit faced the anger of more than 300 local people at a public meeting in the town to debate the controversial decision.

Organiser Bryan Leaker - a local hotelier, former district councillor and past director of Minehead's Butlins holiday complex - lined up representatives from the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and South West Ambulance Services NHS Foundation Trust.

They were there to explain the reasons behind the change in opening hours, which took effect with just two days' notice and has been blamed on a shortage of trained staff.

But the meeting on Tuesday, which packed the ballroom of the Hobby Horse inn to capacity and left people standing outside, failed to produce answers to allay concerns about the lack of night-time medical provision.

Campaigners have launched a petition calling for the immediate reopening of the unit and improved ambulance cover across West Somerset to stop what they believe is a healthcare lottery in the district.

They intend to hand copies to health chiefs - possibly with a march to the hospital - and to Parliament.

West Somerset's MP Ian Liddell-Grainger will be called on to support the action and the community is even considering launching its own appeal to find the additional emergency nurse practitioners needed to run Somerset's seven minor injuries units.

The Minehead unit, previously open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has been closed between 11pm and 7am since March 12.

Dr Andrew Dayani, the trust's medical director, insisted that the cut in opening hours was temporary, although it could be in place until August.

And he also insisted the statistics previously released by the trust showing Minehead dealt with an average of one patient a night in the winter and 1.8 in the summer months was correct.

But the announcement by the trust's newly appointed chief operating officer Andy Heron that closing the Minehead unit overnight was "the least bad option" sparked a furious reaction.

Mr Heron admitted that Minehead staff were being redeployed to the Bridgwater minor injuries unit, which was struggling in the face of "incredible" demand, leaving staff there barely able to cope.

He said a total of 34 emergency nurse practitioners were employed across the county.

But three weeks ago with at least two vacancies and two members of staff off sick, shifts could not be covered - even using agency staff, which the trust had been doing for some time.

Nurses in Bridgwater were having to see between 40 and 45 patients a session and going without work breaks.

"It was at that point that we made the decision on the Minehead unit," said Mr Heron.

The meeting was told that the trust was now in the process of recruiting four additional emergency nurse practitioners.

But Mr Heron said staff could not be appointed overnight and the situation would take time to resolve.

"If we can get people in before August, we will be delighted to reopen the unit.

"I understand the concern that this is the thin end of the wedge but this is not a surreptitious back-door closure."

But health chiefs were criticised for their lack in forward planning in recruitment, after admitting that the role of the highly specialised emergency nurse practitioners was a relatively new one and the pool of potential recruits fairly small.

Mr Leaker won overwhelming support when he declared patient safety in West Somerset was being compromised.

"Why are we being treated as the poor relation," he asked.

"We are the most the sparse, most rural district and the one furthest away from Musgrove Park Hospital - the nearest care is 26 miles away.

"Over 60 per cent of our population is retired - we are not clinicians and this service is vital to us."

Mr Leaker said the current situation was unacceptable.

"Everyone is telling me that this closure is temporary until August - what I would say to people is, don't be ill at night between now and then.

"I believe the health and well-being of this community is being put at risk - they are risking your lives, they are risking my life and if anything happens, they will be held to account."

He said Butlins had taken the decision to employ its own paramedics and ambulances for 20 weeks a year because it was concerned that the Minehead unit could not provide the comprehensive medical care needed.

Many of the health service representatives stressed that the Minehead unit dealt only with minor injuries.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth, urgent care clinical lead for the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, said anyone suffering a stroke, heart attack or similarly serious illness would always be referred to Musgrove Park.

She said the new NHS 111 service was designed to offer help and support as a first point of call, signposting people to the services appropriate to their needs.

But she said there was currently a shortage of emergency nurse practitioners and GPs in and out of hours, both nationally and locally.

"Recruitment is a big issue," she said.

But emotions ran high as several people at the meeting recounted tales of waiting for ambulances for between two and three hours, with similar waits for the roving GPs covering, but not based in West Somerset overnight.

John Dyer, an operational manager with the South West Ambulance Services NHS Foundation Trust, said there was no such thing as "a Minehead ambulance or a Taunton ambulance" anymore.

He said ambulances were moved "dynamically" to meet demand.

Mr Dyer said that out of the 200 or so calls received by the service a day in Somerset, just 48 per cent ended up with patients being taken to A&E units.

"We used to take everything to hospital but now we have emergency nurse practitioners on ambulances who can carry out a range of treatments.

"The ambulance service has changed - not one of us here can deliver these services on our own."

Concerns were also raised by local civic leaders - Cllr Christine Lawrence, Somerset County Council cabinet member for health and well-being, said she felt cross that local councillors and people had not been consulted on the closure.

"There is no point in building a lovely hospital like Minehead's, if you don't have the staff to run it," she said.

"I would urge you to go back and have a really good look at this - August is far too late."

Minehead Mayor Cllr Val Welch said the town's population doubled in the summer months.

"There are going to be accidents, involving young ones and the elderly - please rethink what you are doing."

And West Somerset councillor Martin Dewdney said no satisfactory answers had been provided by the health service representatives.

He said they would be called to question again at a district council scrutiny committee meeting on April 14 and urged local people to attend.

Cllr Dewdney said it was beyond belief that the NHS, which had a budget of £650 million

in Somerset, could not staff its facilities.

"This situation did not arise three weeks ago, it was 18 months ago," he said.

"If you live in Porlock you face a 60-mile round trip to get to the Taunton facility - it is unacceptable."

There was widespread praise for staff working at the hospital, after one emergency nurse practitioner at the Minehead unit said all they were trying to do was support their colleagues around the county and provide a safe and efficient service.

"I worked in Bridgwater yesterday and by 2pm I had seen 60 patients - you cannot expect one nurse to see that many," she said.

But urging local people to support the campaign to get the Minehead unit reopened Mr Leaker said three years ago before the town's new hospital was built, West Somerset was receiving a fantastic service in a very tired building.

"We have said the staff there are doing a great job but we now have a fantastic building with a very tired service."

"We have had no resolution to this issue tonight and I am very unhappy about that.

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"But if they think we are going to go away and do nothing, they are very much mistaken."