Alnwick minor injuries unit to temporarily close

Junior doctors will take part in the tenth period of industrial action from 7am on Saturday February 24 to 11.59pm on Wednesday, February 28.

Alnwick Infirmary’s minor injuries unit will close from 7.45am on Saturday, February 24 until 7.45am on Sunday, February 25.

This is to help ensure that Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust can look after its sickest patients, when demand for emergency hospital services is expected to be very high.

The trust is hoping to be able to keep the minor injuries unit open on Sunday, February 25, and is doing what it can to do so. But it may have to close on this day too.

Staff from Alnwick Infirmary minor injuries unit will help ensure that the trust can care for patients with urgent and emergency healthcare needs.

All other services will continue to be provided as normal at Alnwick Infirmary. The only service temporarily affected will be Alnwick Infirmary minor injuries unit.

Dr Jeremy Rushmer, executive medical director at Northumbria Healthcare, said: “This decision is a last resort, but is necessary to make sure that we can provide safe care to our sickest patients over the weekend, during the next period of industrial action.

“We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause some patients and ask everyone to please think very carefully about where they access care. We always need to treat our sickest patients first in our A&E department, so those that do not have serious or life-threatening conditions will face long waits.”

Patients who may need to access care from Alnwick minor injuries unit are being asked to go to either Berwick minor injuries unit or Wansbeck General Hospital’s urgent treatment centre, depending on their healthcare need.

Dr Rushmer continued: "We would like to reassure people that if they do require emergency and urgent care at any time, we are here to help, and we urge you to come forward. All our urgent and emergency services remain open.

“I would like to also say thank you to all our staff, across the trust, for their hard work, effort and dedication to make sure that our patients receive the best care possible.”

Advice to the public during industrial action also includes:

Anyone with planned surgery, procedures or appointments should attend unless they have heard otherwise. Although it may be necessary for some appointments and treatments to be postponed as emergency care and life-threatening cases are prioritised.

For everyday illnesses and injuries, people can use the online symptom checker at www.111.nhs.uk. They may be redirected to a health professional if they need to be seen by someone. Also, self-care advice is available online from the NHS at www.nhs.uk.

Anyone needing urgent mental health support should seek it via their local Crisis Team. People can put their postcode in here to find their local crisis line.

People are asked to consider seeing their GP or local pharmacist first, for less serious health conditions or those that don’t need urgent attention.

People can check local pharmacy services and opening times by visiting NHS find a pharmacy.