Altrincham Hospital’s minor injuries unit (MIU) will be closed, it has been confirmed following a meeting of health bosses today (September 18).

Greater Manchester’s Integrated Care Board accepted a series of recommendations following a review of urgent care provision in Trafford, which included the unit’s permanent closure.

It means the two rooms at Altrincham where minor injuries were treated until it closed during the first Covid pandemic lockdown in 2020 will never reopen.

That is despite a call by Trafford Council’s watchdog health scrutiny committee last week for high-level public consultation over the closure.

Labour’s newly-elected Altrincham and Sale West MP Connor Rand also used his maiden speech in the House of Commons to call for the unit to be saved.

Opposition councillors, including Liberal Democrats, Greens and Conservatives have also voiced opposition to the MIU closure.

Presenting the recommendations to the board was Trafford’s deputy place lead Gareth Jones who said the consideration of the future of the facility at Altrincham Hospital was part of a wider review of urgent care in the borough.

Treatment at the unit was suspended on April 1, 2020 and has remained closed because of a shortage of specialist nursing staff, known as emergency nurse practitioners.

He said that national guidance [from the NHS] stipulates that minor injuries units should no longer be provided and that the service at Altrincham did not meet those guidelines or requirements.

Average attendance per day at Altrincham MIU was 49 patients, of which 65 per cent lived within a two-mile radius of the facility. The highest proportional age range using it was school-age children.

It was also argued that there is a nearby urgent treatment centre at Wythenshawe Hospital three miles away to which the existing Altrincham staff were deployed during the pandemic. 

There are also two GP practices 200 yards away from the Altrincham Hospital site which also provide ‘extended access’ provision for patients.

Mr Jones emphasised that while the minor injuries unit at Altrincham is closed, all other services delivered at the site remain open, including outpatient and diagnostic services.

Following the decision by the board the chief executive of NHS GM Mark Fisher said: “The minor injuries unit was stood down during the Covid-19 pandemic due to national shortages in specialist nursing staff required to run the unit. 

“Permanent closure would involve the continued relocation of the MIU’s services and staff to Wythenshawe Hospital, approximately three miles away.

“All other services currently being provided at Altrincham Hospital will continue and other options for the use of these two rooms will now be considered.”

“In addition, we will investigate the possibility of bringing ‘out-of-hours’ (outside 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday) GP care into, or closer to, Trafford, as well as improved methods of communication with patients to help to direct them to the right services.”