Newark and Sherwood District Council passes a motion calling on Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to reinstate 24/7 emergency care at Newark Hospital Urgent Treatment Centre

A council has committed itself to fighting for full 24/7 urgent treatment care in Newark.

Newark and Sherwood District Council unanimously passed a motion on Tuesday seeking calling on the Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to reinstate NHS urgent medical care and urgent treatment, 24 hours a day at Newark Hospital.

The motion was presented by portfolio holder for health, wellbeing and leisure Susan Crosby, and received the support of all councillors, with many speaking passionately about how vital the service was.

The Urgent Treatment Centre at Newark Hospital, run by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, provides urgent care and non-life-threatening treatment for injuries or conditions, such as cuts, simple broken bones, wounds, minor burns and minor head, eye and back injuries.

Overnight opening was originally cut in 2020 as a temporary measure in response to staffing issues brought on by the Covid pandemic.

In March this year, following a lengthy consultation process, the Nottinghamshire ICB ruled that the centre should not reopen overnight, citing low patient numbers and continued staffing problems.

Opening hours were extended, but only by an additional hour and half, meaning urgent treatment can only be accessed from 8am to 10.30pm.

The decision left many residents disappointed and frustrated as currently those who need medical assistance overnight need to either wait for an ambulance or find a way to make the long journey to King’s Mill or one of the Nottingham Hospitals.

Deputy Leader, Rowan Cozens, said: “Newark has grown enormously and we have many young families.

“Children and babies get poorly extremely quickly and need to be seen extremely quickly.

“Having to travel 20 miles to access urgent care has a detrimental impact on those who are the most vulnerable. Children, young parents and the elderly.

“It’s quite wrong that those who can least afford it are currently paying hundreds of pounds in taxi fares to get to King’s Mill.”

Between 2011 and 2021, the population of Newark grew by 9.8% and is only projected to increase further with the addition of new housing developments.

In 2010, the Accident and Emergency service in Newark Hospital was discontinued. However, at that time, a specific commitment was made that NHS 24-hour urgent treatment would be available at Newark Hospital, including at night, without the need for patients to travel outside the town for care.

It was argued by councillors that the latest decision made by the ICB could therefore be seen as a U-turn and going back on commitments made to the people of Newark in the not so distant past.

Neil Ross said: “These changes in Newark aren’t happening in a vacuum, they’re happening in an environment where it is more difficult for everyone to access medical care.

“I understand that the NHS might struggle to meet all the needs of the people of Newark, and we have to accept that.

“But it’s one thing to say needs are difficult to meet and another to say those needs no longer exist.

“That lowers the bar to provision and in 10 years time we could well be looking at a further degradation of service.

He added: “The NHS is free at the point of delivery — for the people of Newark, that point of delivery has moved 20 to 25 miles away.”

It was also pointed out that Grantham Hospital, which serves a similar population to Newark, had committed itself to retaining 24 hour urgent treatment care at the same time that Newark services were being stripped back.

Irene Brown agreed with the motion, but said that staffing issues needed to be addressed more broadly across Nottinghamshire to make sure that there were enough overnight doctors available to cover all of the county’s hospitals and that if Newark did reopen with a 24 hour service, we should not deprive other areas of care as a result.

Councillors again spoke about the difficulty or reaching Mansfield in the middle of the night on rural roads which in the past year have been closed on multiple occasions due to flooding and regularly shut for long periods when accidents occur.

Lee Brazier added that upcoming major development plans for the A614, including overnight road works, would make getting from Newark to King’s Mill in the middle of the night almost impossible without lengthy detours.

He reiterated the point that with how isolated Newark is within Nottinghamshire, surrounded by rural areas, it did not make sense to remove 24/7 urgent treatment care from the town.

The motion was passed unanimously.