A PETITION has been launched to block plans to close Cirencester Hospital’s Minor Injuries Unit at night.

The MIU looks all but certain to close at night despite overwhelming opposition from Cotswold residents.

NHS bosses want to overhaul Gloucestershire’s seven MIUs in a bid to save costs and bring them in line with Care Quality Commission guidelines.

In a review begun yesterday, county residents have been given three options on how they would like the units to look – not one would see Cirencester’s MIU remain open overnight.

The first option involves changing all seven MIUs’ opening hours to 8am-8pm, while option two and three would see Cirencester and Stroud MIUs close from 11pm to 8am.

The news comes despite a petition launched by Cllr Joe Harris on Monday, which received more than 500 signatures in just a few hours and had surpassed 800 as the Standard went to print.

“This is a really important service, not just for Cirencester but also the surrounding area – it is therefore unacceptable that closure is even being contemplated,” the former mayor of Cirencester told the Standard.

“Over the next 15 years Cirencester is going to dramatically increase with up to 2,350 new homes being built. We need a strong local hospital that can cope with the future growth of the town.

“When services are struggling it is easy to just recommend closing them. Our hospital is a gem in Cirencester’s crown and it needs supporting and enhancing.”

New Care Quality Commission rules mean MIUs cannot open without two qualified nurses on shift. Recruitment problems have meant that between December 2015 and May 2016 the county’s units had to close 142 times – 94 per cent of those were in Cirencester and Stroud.

NHS bosses said MIU use has increased seven per cent over the past year but that, on average, Stroud and Cirencester combined saw only 4.5 patients each night between 11pm and 8am.

However, a source from within Cirencester Hospital cast doubt on the figures, telling the Standard that dozens of people could come through the doors on any given night.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

The former mayor's petition received widespread support

“It might be quiet sometimes, but what will happen when lots of people turn up at once?” he said At a Gloucestershire County Council health and care committee meeting on Tuesday, Gloucestershire Care Services CEO Paul Jennings said the review was “not an exercise in saving money” but to “make services safer”.

He added: “In all options we are proposing there will be no overnight services.”

Mike Roberts, medical services director at Gloucestershire Care Services, also a GP, said many patients who used the overnight services should either have gone to A&E or waited until the morning to use the MIU.

“The major challenge is the overnight shift: it’s hard enough getting one member of staff let alone two. One of the reasons for this is because these are extremely well qualified nurses – they don’t want to be sat around all night waiting for a patient, they want to be busy.

“This is about making a safer service, it isn’t about making financial cuts.”

The new rules requiring two nurses on MIUs mean the cheapest option in the review will still cost the NHS an extra £210,000.

A Care Quality Commission study in June 2015 found Gloucestershire MIUs required improvement.

New mum Francesca Cooper, 26, from Miserden, said: “Any parent knows how reassuring having a service like Cirencester is, I’ve got an accident prone toddler and have had to use the overnight services a few times, including last weekend.

“To close the hospital overnight would be a serious erosion of this service and make many people feel much less comfortable about where to turn when an accident happens.”

Heidi Gardiner signed Cllr Harris’ petition, saying the MIU had “saved her daughter’s” life when she was “struck down with meningitis”.

She wrote: “They got antibiotics into her before we were moved on to a bigger hospital. If they close it down I fear for people’s lives – it would be a tragedy.”

Gavin Smith added: “It would be crazy to take this service away given the planned developments in the town. And the current residents need it too.”

The NHS will be holding drop in events in Cirencester’s Corinium Museum on July 27 and August 9, and an information van will be parked at Cirencester Hospital on August 26.

The petition can be signed at http://bit.ly/29EopZd. To see the review visit glos-care.nhs.uk.