Patients in Teignbridge are being urged to make better use of the district's minor injury units. The call comes from Teignbridge NHS Primary Care Trust a year after it partly bowed to pressure on planned cuts to the service. It pulled the plug on 24-hour treatments at community hospitals districtwide and had wanted all minor injury units to close at 8pm. But, after public outrage, it agreed to spend £50,000 to keep the upgraded minor injury and minor illness centre (MIMIC) at Newton Abbot Hospital open until 11pm. Minor injury units in Dawlish, Teignmouth, Bovey Tracey and Ashburton still close at 8pm. Now the trust is preparing to review the changes and its chief executive, Pam Smith, has encouraged patients to make the most of the facilities. 'The service is there and we are keen that even more people use it as there are still local people as well as visitors going to the main accident and emergency departments for treatments that could be given locally,' she said. 'If they go to, or telephone the local hospital for advice but can't be treated there, the staff will send them on to the right service for their needs.' 'If someone goes to the local unit it is likely to be more convenient for them and is supporting their hospital which needs to earn its income from the PCT in the same way as the main district general hospitals do.' Mrs Smith said the Newton Abbot MIMIC had to attract an additional 1,000 patients to justify the £50,000 cost of extended opening and early indications suggested the target would be achieved. Attendance figures for the other units were predicted to remain unchanged from last year. Mrs Smith is currently overseeing her trust's merger with five others in Devon, which will take effect from October 1. She said everyone was working hard to ensure 'business as usual' and while the change offered the chance to cut out duplication most staff would notice little more than a change in their employers' name. Mrs Smith will be applying for a job within the new trust, but declined to say if that would be for the post of chief executive.
