PEOPLE in West Somerset are being urged to have their say on the future of Somerset’s minor injuries units.

The NHS runs seven such units – known as MIUs – in Somerset, including one in Minehead. They provide health services for people unable to see a GP at short notice and do not need to go to A&E.

The Government is seeking to roll out urgent treatment centres across the country – larger hubs which are run and staffed by GPs, with longer opening hours and a wider range of services.

But Somerset cannot afford to replace all its MIUs with these centres – meaning some of them may close in the years ahead.

Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) – which decides where health spending is allocated in the county – has launched a consultation on the future of community health services, including the role of MIUs.

Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger is now calling on his constituents to lodge objections to changes that might affect the Minehead unit.

“Concentrating these services on fewer centres is inevitably going to make them busier and increase waiting times for patients,” he said.

“It’s also going to mean that patients will face longer journey times for treatment – a particular worry for people in West Somerset where we have one of the highest proportions of elderly of any comparable area in the country.”

The CCG has not identified options for which minor injuries units would close at this stage.