£1 /2 m extension announced for Newark Hospital's minor injuries unit

A £1 /2m extension to Newark Hospital's minor injuries unit/urgent care centre has been welcomed by health campaigners and the town's MP but isn't the upgrade to care that people want.

Proposals have been submitted for planning permission to make changes to the minor injuries unit in Newark Hospital and the emergency department at King's Mill in Sutton-in-Ashfield which, it is said, will make access to health services simpler for patients.

The extension at Newark Hospital's minor injuries unit would house a new waiting area and additional consulting rooms so that healthcare staff, including hospital staff and GPs, can work alongside each other.

GPs are currently based in their own surgeries but under the changes would be under the same roof.

Newark MP Mr Robert Jenrick said the patient experience would be improved and it was a significant capital spend on the hospital. However, he said the proposals fell short of what people wanted.

He said he was still unclear whether the changes would mean 24-hour GP cover at the hospital. Patients still won't be able to be admitted to the hospital wards at night under the proposals because Newark is classed as a day-case hospital.

"Going forward, this will mean more doctor cover at Newark Hospital and provide an out-of-hours service," said Mr Jenrick. "But the level of the minor injuries unit/urgent care centre will stay the same. It is not the upgrade to the unit that I and others are calling for. It doesn't mean 24-hour admissions, which I want to see, nor will it increase the number of non-emergency green cases taken to Newark (by ambulance).

"However, I do not want to denigrate what is a significant capital investment in the hospital. Each of these investments, such as the new CT scanner, is an investment in the hospital and its future and people will welcome that.

"What I will be pushing at my adjournment debate in Parliament on Wednesday is that Newark is sufficiently remote to warrant a higher degree of emergency care than it currently has."

Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust, which manages Newark and King's Mill hospitals, says the changes follow feedback from patients who said it was often confusing whether to go to the emergency department or Primary Care 24 at King’s Mill Hospital, or between the minor injuries unit and GP services at Newark Hospital.

SFHFT says the changes will result in more integrated healthcare services, improving the way patients are initially assessed and allow for different healthcare staff at both locations to work in a more joined up way.

The Secretary of the Say Yes to Newark Hospital campaign, Mr Paul Baggaley said: "While any investment in Newark Hospital is welcome I don’t think it addresses the issues that we have been highlighting all along which is, non-urgent cases are being transferred unnecessarily to other hospitals, adversely affecting the sustainability of Newark Hospital, the performance of EMAS and other hospitals.”

SFHFT says the investment at Newark will help meet the proposals set out in the Vision and Strategic Direction for Newark Hospital to strengthen urgent care services.

It says the plans are an important part of the Better Together transformation programme – a five-year plan to transform health and social care services to improve services while also making them sustainable to meet the growing demands on health services across Newark and Sherwood and Mansfield and Ashfield.

The clinical lead for urgent care in Newark and Sherwood, Dr Mark Folman, a GP at the Fountain Medical Centre in Newark, said: “The way that our emergency and urgent care services work together is critical to sustainable services; and new consulting rooms will help hospital and community services to really integrate and help meet the future challenges set out in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.

"GPs provide thousands of urgent appointments every day, and the public know that emergency departments or urgent care centres are also an option. This is good news because it will help ensure patients get the best care through those services working more closely together.”

Mr Paul O’Connor, chief executive of SFHFT, said: “Urgent care services are for those patients who do not need our emergency services, but patients are often confused about where to go for the best, most appropriate treatment.

"Patients need quick access to the right service, and having GPs working alongside hospital and community staff will give patients invaluable access to a range of clinical expertise in one location.”

Primary Care 24 and the out-of-hours GP service is operated by Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services (CNCS). Chief executive Mr Richard Carroll said: “As a social enterprise, we are keen to support the Better Together transformation programme and the single front door scheme to benefit local communities.

"We will certainly do all we can to support these initiatives, to further improve the provision of out of hours care across all our communities and help the healthcare organisations to realise their ambitions.”

The changes are being funded as part of a successful bid to the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund during 2014 - money set aside to improve access to GP services. The improvements will cost in the region of £1.2m, about half the amount being spent at each hospital.