HOSPITAL: Extended opening hours for Bognor injuries unit

The go-ahead is about to be given for the department to open seven days a week throughout the year for the first time.

Patients will be able to go along there between 9am and 5pm every day to be treated for conditions such as cuts and broken arms and legs.

The unit at the Shripney Road hospital has only been open between 9am to 5pm Mondays to Fridays for decades.

Calls for extra hours to be added have been made during the past few years as the number of residents around Bognor rises.

But the unit was threatened with closure ten years ago. The prospect of it being shut prompted widespread protests which caused health bosses to back down.

Current Bognor deputy town mayor Cllr Jeanette Warr was the town mayor at the time. She led the campaign to keep the unit.

"I'm over the moon that the minor injuries unit is likely to be open for longer," she stated.

"I am sure everyone in Bognor will be pleased by that. It's something we really need with the number of people we have here, especially in the summer.

"But it would not be acceptable to open Bognor's unit for longer because the A&E at St Richard's was being downgraded."

The minor injuries unit at the war memorial hospital has been linked with St Richard's for several years to ensure a standard level of care for all patients.

The medical staff at the Bognor unit deal with between 35 to 40 patients a day. This means up to 10,400 patients a year receive treatment there. This could increase by a further 2,000 patients annually if the same rate of patients is seen during the extra hours.

News of the 365-day service in Bognor was revealed by West Sussex Primary Care Trust's head of community hospitals, Gareth Howells.

His report setting out how to achieve the extra hours is awaiting the go-ahead from the trust's bosses. They are expected to say yes in early June with the decision put into effect in the coming months.

"Extending the hours of the minor injuries unit is something we need to do. But we have got to make sure that we do it in an effective and cost efficient way," he stated. "I thought about extending the opening times into the evenings but I thought the demand for weekend and bank holiday openings would be greater."

The extra hours will be accompanied by a publicity campaign to highlight the scope of treatments which can be handled by the unit.

"There is certainly scope for more patients to go through the unit and that is what we will be hoping to achieve," explained Mr Howells. "We intend to work hard to make sure people know what the minor injuries unit is about here."

He described the war memorial hospital as setting the benchmark for all the community hospitals in West Sussex.

He said: "The facilities we have at Bognor are excellent and we are looking to have more services here."

A new service recently started at the hospital was a rapid-access clinic where GPs could refer patients to consultants within four days for non-urgent matters.

Extra x-ray and diagnostic services were also to be introduced.

The new Springfield renal dialysis unit was also being opened in mid-June to enable more West Sussex patients to be treated in Bognor rather than having to travel further afield, he added.

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