MINEHEAD Community Hospital’s minor injuries unit will be permanently closed at night due to ‘remaining safety concerns’, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust decided this week.

A temporary closure of the overnight service, in place since July last year, has now been made permanent - a move condemned by the local MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger.

Responding to residents’ concerns, the trust said it will find a ‘safe and sustainable’ replacement service.

But Mr Liddell-Grainger said the trust’s claim that the unit does not meet the overnight needs of the people in Minehead and the surrounding area ‘masked the real reason for the closure, which was to save money’.

He added: "I am afraid this is yet another example of the health services fiddling around with statistics to justify a hugely unpopular decision," he said.

The night-time service had previously been staffed by a paramedic and a healthcare assistant and provided first aid and advice rather than a full assessment and treatment. Minehead was the only MIU in Somerset to be open overnight.

Concerns were raised that patients with serious conditions such as heart attack, stroke or major trauma, could delay getting the right emergency treatment by going to the MIU overnight.

The trust said that on average fewer than one person a night was getting treated at the MIU.

This week, Dr Iain Chorlton, Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group associate clinical director urgent and emergency care, said: "It is important that we understand the urgent and emergency needs of the local population, to create services which are both safe and sustainable."

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust chief medical officer Dr Dan Meron added: "We first closed the Minehead MIU temporarily overnight from July 1, 2021, because we had concerns about the safety of the overnight service, and those concerns remain."

The MIU service that is open during core hours from 8am to 9pm will remain and it is not planned to change it, the trust added.

“This is not an optimal experience for our patients and we are concerned about the safety of this service. It can have serious consequences for patients if treatment for conditions like heart attacks, strokes, major trauma, asthma, sepsis and wounds is delayed.”

While the MIU was temporarily closed overnight, the trust reviewed the overnight service and worked with partners and patient and public representatives to look at safety concerns, quantify and meet the overnight needs of the local area and propose a way forward.

It also engaged with local people to understand the impact of the overnight closure on them and any concerns they had.

Dr Meron said: “Many of those we communicated with talked about the travel distance to the nearest Accident and Emergency at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, and the difficulty in travelling there.

“Although the majority of those we spoke to had not used the overnight MIU service, it was often cited as a necessary ‘safety net’ for local people because of the perceived limited availability, access and responses from other health care services”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said that although Minehead was the only MIU in Somerset offering night-time services that was for a very good reason.

“Minehead is a long way from Taunton and ambulance response times have frequently been atrocious,” he said.

“And even once an ambulance arrives the journey time can be well over an hour in bad weather - hardly a consoling thought for anyone.

“At least when the unit was operating local people had the comfort of knowing they could get some form of basic care at the unit, even if they subsequently had to be transferred.”

A spokesman for the League of Friends of Minehead Hospital said that while they regretfully accepted the decision to close the MIU at night, there was deep concern that over the seven months since the original decision was taken, nothing had been put in place to alleviate the fears of West Somerset residents who needed urgent treatment or care between 9pm and 8am.

“The delay in responding to such calls is due to the lack of co-operation between the Clinical Commissioning Group, the Ambulance Trust and the NHS Trust, which has left West Somerset residents vulnerable.”

The spokesman added: “The Friends will be calling on the CCG to sort out an overnight service for West Somerset residents before the summer influx of visitors.”